My Bad

When The Spouse and I started dating he was intrigued by the fact that I kept a coffee maker in my bedroom. It acted as my snooze alarm. The night before I'd set it up with fresh ground beans. Then when my alarm rang in the morning I'd roll over and turn on the coffee maker. When the last gurgle of steam hissed and the fragrance of fresh coffee filled the room, then I knew to get up. Which I would. Right after I had my first cuppa.

The Spouse thought this was pure genius, so he married me.

With two people drinking coffee in the morning, we needed a bigger coffee maker, which moved into the kitchen. But being able to have that first cup right away was still vital so we'd take turns setting it up the night before. One night it was his turn but I did it, telling him that it was my privilege to serve him. (Newlyweds). He latched onto that and coffee duty became The Privilege.

(You do not, however, have to do The Privilege on your birthday. We even have a song about it).

Well, ever since The Spouse started taking the bus to work, he gets up way earlier than me and somehow or another it evolved that he did the Privilege during the week and I did it on the weekends. I don't really know how that happened; there was no reason why I couldn't do it. But then, I think that was emblematic of a lot of things around our house. As an at-home mom, I started doing a lot of things that we used to share because I was here, he wasn't and it just made sense. And if someone starts doing all the laundry it's easy for the other person to stop thinking about doing it.

The other night The Spouse told me that, with me working, it was time to get back to the way we used to do things: trading off cooking dinner during the week, sharing the household responsibilities 50/50, etc. He even said he'd go grocery shopping with me. (He hates grocery shopping and frankly, I don't think we have to take it that far; I happen to love grocery shopping). I'll be honest with you, it rather blew me away. Oh, you better believe I had every intention of broaching that subject but for him to offer it like that was the best "going back to work" present I could have been given. In that spirit of cooperation, I told him that we should also return to sharing The Privilege.

It was my turn last night and I totally forgot.

I'm glad it's a three day weekend. We're meeting some old friends for dinner tonight and one of The Spouse's on-line buddies is coming to stay. But I hope to use the time to get our new systems in place, put away the laundry that was washed days ago and generally try to set it up so that household-y things start functioning a little better. I'm also going to remember to do The Privilege.

All that has absolutely nothing at all to do with today's musical selection. I just happen to think it is a terribly delightful and quite sing-a-longable and it makes me happy.




The Dandy Warhols "We Used to Be Friends"