Mikael has been working full-time for about a month now. Unfortunately, the only job he could find was one he didn't want (supervising juvenile "delinquents") and one that requires he work an eight-hour evening shift. Considering neither one of us has had health or dental benefits for over a year, he took it anyway. This means that several days a week, we only see each other for a couple hours in the morning and maybe an hour or so (before I pass out) at night.
Initially, I thought this would be okay, or maybe even good. Not having him around in the evenings (at least those that I don't have a evening class on) would help me focus on my ever-expanding to-do list. And this has been the case (except when there's good TV on). What I didn't foresee is it putting us in a bit of a rut. We've started spending our mornings catching up on sleep instead of catching up with each other, or eating a late breakfast while watching Price is Right, which means our conversation revolves around guessing prices and making fun of Drew Carey's bow ties. So, this morning, I woke up a bit earlier than usual, got myself dressed and even curled my hair. I then woke Mikael up and told him we were going to IHOP, something he loves to do but doesn't get to do too often since he's married to a vegan(ish).
While we were beginning our meal, a family came in and sat in a nearby booth with their three little girls (I'd guess 5, 3 and a year old). As they walked by, I said, "So that's pretty much your worst nightmare." And, he laughed and said yeah, and then did an impression of our future daughter saying, "Look Daddy. Look how slutty I am," because he has this horrible idea stuck in his head that all teenage girls will be a father's worst nightmare and sluts - big big sluts. I'm sure that he will be fine with whatever we end up having in the end, and I'm sure if we do have girls, he will be a huge pile of mush. After we talked about this a bit, somehow the conversation evolved into how we hope to raise our kids. We talked about education (private vs. public, christian vs. adventist), discipline, how to motivate them, and so on. These are things that we might have talked about once in a while in the past, but this time it was real. These were real plans, real strategies we were making together.
After finishing our meal, we headed to Lowe's and bought a few perennials to round out the garden before the snow falls and then mapped out where to put them before he had to go to work. And, as he kissed me goodbye, he even complemented me on my hair.
