Loose Ends

Disclaimer: If you asked him, my other half would have a similar but opposite story. But you're not going to ask, right?

From the time we met until many months after the wedding, I thought we had each found our perfect mate. Then we packed to go visit relatives. I packed my suitcase, and he looked at me and said, "Where am I going to put my clothes?"

"In your suitcase."

"Yours is a fullsized suitcase, and we are only going to be gone three days," he pointed out. Clearly it was my first experience in sharing. That is, after I bought him his own toothpaste, so he could squeeze it in the middle if he wanted.

Once we moved from an apartment to a house, I realized I had married an "everything in-its-place" male. If I got a glass out for an iced tea but watered plants first instead, he had put the glass away by the time I got back to it. Thank goodness this man had a job and was gone five days a week. We would have cancelled each other out.

I am easily distracted, and it isn't unusual for me to get things out to clean or iron and then go off and do something else. Eventually I would get back to it, but not necessarily that day. Let me note that my other half does not put the ironing board or the cleaning supplies away for me but neither does he do the ironing or the cleaning when he sees them out. To avoid an incident of international proportions, I now leave the ironing board in my office - out of his way.

We have been married for several decades, and I am pretty sure he has caught on to my leaving things out for him to put away because they are too heavy, go on the high shelf or I have forgotten where they reside. But, he puts them away anyway.

And he knows when I ask, "Where is my…" that he has followed too closely behind me and put things away before I could use them.

The kitchen is off limits for me except for cleanup. I never got the point of putting things away exactly where I found them, so he puts them away.

I have my own set of tools - hammer, wire cutters of several sizes and a set of screwdrivers. That is a defensive move on his part, so I don't borrow his things. I can never remember which drawer or bin I got the tools from. He prefers that I put them all on the counter, so he can put them back where they belong. Perfect!

He drives when we go on trips. That one was easy. The first - and last - time I drove on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, I got stopped for speeding. No ticket - a point that still annoys him since he has gotten a ticket every time he has been stopped for anything.