paragraphs that oughta be essays, or maybe we should be glad they aren't

I know, that wasn't fair. Grumpy list of grumpy things, followed by one of those weird posts that no one knows what to say about.

Thank you for saying nice things to me after that grumpy post. Especially girlfiend, who I hadn't even known was reading, who gave me some type of award on her blog, which I'll pass on sometime soon, when I get to it.

Mostly I was grumpy because of the reentry thing, which, thank you for validating, is not ever trivial. A few weeks ago some poor soul got here by googling "when he comes back after being away for a long time" and I just wanted to give her (I assume her) a hug. (She was in Ann Arbor, as well, poor thing, but that's another story.) We have a pattern: three days of awesome glowy conversation and delighted reunion sex, followed by a wretched week where I realize I'm completely unsuited to even living with another adult, let alone being married, and also why does he eat so much, and why is there so much laundry, and how come he is always standing right there in the kitchen, right exactly where I want to be standing to make my tea. Why can't he move? Ahem. Then, hopefully, we go out somewhere for a beer, if we're lucky enough to get a babysitter, which we were that week, and we kind of snap out of it and things are more or less back to normal.

Things are, now, more or less back to normal, except that now A is gone again, but only for three days, and now to just a normal inhabited destination where he has phone service and internet access. For some reason—I think because it came at the beginning of the month and I'd neglected to peek onto the next page of the calendar and see it coming—I didn't plan very well for this trip, and ended up having to cancel a giant list of things—like a doctor appointment, and a staff meeting, and, whoops, another doctor appointment—when I realized on Friday that I'd be solo the first half of this week. I bought nail polish at the drugstore on Friday, and it turned out the color I liked was called "Well Prepared". But now I'm thinking, not so much.

The thing that's not totally back to normal is that A and I are hashing out our differences about religion, and it sort of sucks. I wouldn't normally write about marital arguments here, but we're really respectful about our disagreement, and I have a hunch we aren't the only people in the world doing this, and I believe it's one of those things that people don't talk about out in the world enough, so here it is: I would like to join a church (a particular, progressive church that feels to me like home only with higher ceilings, and cleaner), and A has no such interest. It's not as though I am such a believer and he is such an atheist; I have a feeling if there were some type of stick that you pee on and it turns red for heathen and green for true believer, both of us would probably turn out the same muddy brown-red shade of hopeful agnostic. The difference is about history and preference and perception and who knows what else, and although it shouldn't be (and won't end up being, I don't think) a problem for me to have lots more of an attachment to a faith community than he does (in fact my whole entire childhood was spent with a mom who took us to church every Sunday and a dad who stayed home and watched tennis on TV—and look how well adjusted I am and how great their marriage still is!), at the moment it seems sort of fraught: how we will spend our time, what we think about what each other are doing, what we imagine in the future. We've had some terrific (honestly, really good) conversations about it lately, but also some scheduling awkwardness accompanied by grumpy behavior on my part, and gah. I will be glad when we get back to some sort of equilibrium on this.

Speaking of equilibrium, how about that H1N1? I had a cold last week and fretted off and on about whether it was genuinely just a cold or whether I was going to die and/or infect and kill all my friends and coworkers. My kids had it first and didn't die, so that was reassuring. Also, no fever, for them or me, although on Friday evening I was feeling so crappy and panicked that when my temperature continued to read 97.8 on each reading, I was convinced the thermometer must be broken and bought a new one. Which then also said 97.8.

That's when I bought the nail polish. I also bought one of those little sampler boxes of chocolates. A had taken the girls overnight to his mom's house so I could have 24 hours of peace before this little solo parenting stint. I lay on the couch and ate the chocolates, except if I bit into one and it seemed cloying or had coconut in it, I threw it out. And then I went to bed at 8:30. And the next day I had recovered from the feverless H1N1 or whatever it was and spent the day moving plants around and digging up a new bed to plant hardy kiwis in.

The nail polish was for my toes. I never do my fingers.

What's new with you?