Published by JPLand on 28 Jan 2008 at 09:45 am
Just a Bit Different
If you’ve never met either of us, you might be interested to know my wife and I are a bit different from each other. We see and interact with the world in completely different ways. For instance, if you asked us to describe one of the items in our front yard, my wife would probably say something like:
Hundreds of uninhibited flames dance upon their branches and regain their passion with every breath of the wind. As the bitterness of winter falls upon the landscape, the flames will fall to the ground creating a warm blanket to warm the body of the tree until the glow of spring brings new flames to life…
While I love the way my wife paints mental portraits and chooses her words so perfectly, I tend to say things a bit different. Something along the lines of:
The Acer Palmatum Atropurpureum located in the northern portion of our property stands approximately ten feet tall and is distinguished by the reddish hue of the foliage. Pruning has affected the growth of the tree such that no leaves or branches protrude from the bottom-most four to five feet of the trunk, which is a maximum of approximately thee inches in diameter.
So, yeah, we’re different. And when our youngest awoke during the middle of the night throwing-up, we both handled the situation very differently. My wife used her keen since of intellect to know that this would happen even hours before it occurred. As soon as the child moved in her crib, my wife swung into action, hurriedly grabbing seven different objects from the changing station while simultaneously comforting and cleaning said child in one swift motion. As she dealt with the crisis with concern, worry, and compassion, I managed to sit-up in the bed and look around.
By the end of the night, Queen Kelley had single-handedly researched the known medical history of 7 different stomach viruses, examined all children within a 30 mile radius, and referenced 4 medical journals. I put the dirty sheets in the wash. And apparently, I wasn’t very good at that because I got a call this morning on my way to work…”Any reason why the washing machine won’t work?” I have a faint memory of shutting off the water to the washing machine when the sheets had been thoroughly washed, so I was proud to solve the problem over the phone. The response I was expecting was “ah, thank you, sweet dear. You are my hero and your decision-making skills surely saved us from a flood if the hoses would have burst asunder during the middle of the night.” What I heard was something more to the effect of “Why would you do that?”
To be honest, I don’t know. I was half asleep. I don’t have a clue why I do most of the things that I do when I’m fully awake, much less the things that I do when affected by the desire to find a soft pillow. But, I can say that I’m glad that my wife and I are different. She his able to tend to children in the dead of night with full faculties while I am able to do a load of laundry and avert certain floods.
It’s just too bad that another difference is that she handles worry by lying awake and listening for the sound of trouble while I handle it by snoring a little louder.
Queen Kelley on 28 Jan 2008 at 10:23 am #
Boy, I wish I had the ability to snore away contentedly while my kid is down the hall, possibly throwing up again at any minute. Trust me, I’d take that ability any night. But no, I tossed and turned the rest of the night (all four hours of it). And just so everyone knows, I don’t think I’ve ever described a tree quite that way. It’s a bit overdramatic. (:
Anyway, laundry’s working, baby’s snoozing (and no more puking since 12:30 am), and oldest is playing happily. Mommy’s ready to crash. Daddy is probably sleeping at his desk even as you read this.