How to Thoroughly Piss Me Off!

I kind of lost it last night.

First, let's back up to Sunday. Drew was working and I was getting ready so that I could meet him for lunch. It was about 11 AM. Mike came upstairs to cook some breakfast. He asked me if we had some pancake mix that he could use because something happened to theirs, but I didn't want to know what. I told him that if we had any, it would be in the pantry. A few minutes later, he asked me what temperature I set the oven to if I'm making cupcakes.

"Whatever the box says to set it at"

"Well, I don't have a box" ::I give him the side-eye:: "So, what do you usually set it at?"

"I have no idea."

He says ok, so I walk back to the bedroom to finish getting ready. I walk out to the kitchen a few minutes later, after he has walked back downstairs, to find cupcakes made out of pancake batter cooking in my oven. As I left, him and Andy had buttered and syruped their pancake cupcakes and were sitting in the dining room eating.

I got home from lunch with Drew to find that the remaining pancake cupcakes, syrup, and open butter container were sitting on the counter. Both sides of the sink were filled with dirty dishes, and their plates had just been thrown in the sink without really being washed off. Becca came home from church and they all left. About an hour later, they came back and she got some stuff out of their fridge and left again. The kitchen remained the way that I had described.

Drew got off work and we went up to my mom's house for a little bit. We stopped and got some dinner and got home about 8:30 PM or so. They still weren't home, and according to Drew didn't get home until about 11:30 PM.

Yesterday morning, we got up and got ready and went to work. The kitchen remained the way I had described. I decided to go tanning after work so I got home about 6:45 PM. Drew had a softball game last night so he wasn't going to eat dinner and I would be making my own. I walked into the kitchen, quite famished at this point to start my dinner. The butter and syrup had been put away, but everything else remained the way I had described. I didn't have a clean pan to cook my dinner in because they had apparently already made dinner for themselves. I couldn't even easily wash a pan to cook my dinner because both sides of the sink were filled with dirty dishes. Mind you, the dishwasher was filled (well, half-filled because Mike decided to empty the bowls and plates from the bottom rack of the dishwasher) with clean dishes.

That's when I lost it!!

I stormed out to the living room (where Drew was playing a poker game) to vent over the state of the kitchen. We had been laughing over them leaving their stuff out for so long and were wondering how long it would take for them to put it away. I was livid at this point. I rant for a few minutes and then go back into the kitchen to clean up so that I can make dinner.

I don't think that I could have made any more noise while unloading the dishwasher unless I broke things. I was slamming the glasses and cupboard doors. As soon as I get done unloading the dishwasher, I yell to the living room, "How long did that take me? Oh right, two %(#&%)# minutes!!" I start reloading the dishwasher and cleaning out the sinks so that I can wash a pan and, low and behold, Mike and Becca come walking into the kitchen carrying some dishes. He tells that they were 'just coming upstairs to wash their dishes'. Uh huh! Right!! I continue to load the dishwasher and start to grab some of the dishes that Mike had just set on the counter. He tells me that they can wash their own dishes, then picks them up and comes over to the sink to start washing them, shoving me out of the way in the process. So now, I've got the sinks emptied so that I can finally wash a pan and he's standing in the way washing his own dishes. I storm out of the kitchen once again and go into the living room where Drew is at. I look at him, tell him what happened, and then tell him that he better get in there and do something before I stab them with a dirty fork.

Drew goes in and fills a pan, that they had washed, with water and starts it boiling. Drew said that they couldn't even look him in the eye. They finish cleaning up the kitchen and go back downstairs, not to be seen for the rest of the night.

I don't think that I overreacted. Maybe acted a little immature in the slamming of cupboards. But enough is enough. They rarely do the dishes. I think that Becca has helped out less than a handful of times. And they cook in there plenty of times. Only time will tell if my little tirade will change their behavior. I don't care if they don't like doing it or not. I don't particularly enjoy doing the dishes either. But it's part of being an adult and living somewhere.

Eight Months

In the past couple of months, I've noticed that Drew loves to use the phrase "my wife". He'll be talking to a friend of his, a friend that both of us know very well, a friend that was probably in the wedding, and rather than saying something along the lines of "Well, let me talk it over with Tania", he says "Let me talk it over with my wife". He never uses my name anymore. In place of "Tania" has been "my wife".

And I love it!!!!

He's so cute. It's almost like he can't get enough of saying "my wife". I, on the other hand, still feel a little weird saying "my husband". When did I get old enough to be married. Wasn't it just yesterday that my dad took my training wheels off my bike? Wasn't it just yesterday that I was graduating high school? Wasn't it just yesterday that I met Drew?

Wednesday's Word

Daedal / DEE-duhl / adjective
1. Complex or ingenious in form or function; intricate.
2. Skillful; artistic; ingenious.
3. Rich; adorned with many things.

Most Web-site designers realize that large image maps and daedal layouts are to be avoided, and the leading World Wide Web designers have reacted to users' objections to highly graphical, slow sites by using uncluttered, easy-to-use layouts.
-- "Fixing Web-site usability", InfoWorld, December 15, 1997

He gathered toward the end of his life a very extensive collection of illustrated books and illuminated manuscripts, and took heightened pleasure in their daedal patterns as his own strength declined.
-- Florence S. Boos, preface to The Collected Letters of William Morris

I sang of the dancing stars,
I sang of the daedal earth,
And of heaven, and the giant wars,
And love, and death, and birth.
-- Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Hymn of Pan"

Broken Promises

Last night, Jon and Kate announced on their show, Jon & Kate + 8, that they were separating. Earlier that day, sources reported that they had filed divorce papers.

I admit, that my heart is broken. Not simply for the fact that they're divorcing, but for the fact that it seems that marriage is no longer sacred.

As you can tell from reading this blog, I'm still a newlywed. Drew and I have been married for almost 8 months. Granted, that's not the 10 years that Jon and Kate have been married. I made very clear to Drew before he proposed to me, that marriage is for a lifetime in my eyes. He better be very sure that he wanted to be with me for the rest of our lives before he proposed. Divorce is not an option to me. That's the way I was raised. On our wedding day, we stood before God and all of our family and friends and promised each other that we would stay together through good times and bad, sickness and health, for the rest of our lives.

My heart breaks for their poor children. Whose heart doesn't ache for children in a divorce? And it's such a shame that they'll have video documentation of the whole thing unfolding. Only a few months ago, Jon and Kate traveled to Hawaii and renewed their vows. The whole time, explaining to their children that they would "be together forever".

The announcement of their divorce got me thinking about reality tv and marriages. Many marriages don't last a reality television series:

Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson - The Newlyweds - MTV - Divorced
Dave Navarro and Carmen Electra - Til Death Do Us Part - MTV - Divorced
Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar - 18 Kids and Counting - TLC - Married
Matt and Amy Roloff - Little People Big World - TLC - Married
(I came up with a big list longer than this one, and I, of course, can't think of them right now.)

What is it about reality tv that makes marriages crumble to pieces? I know that making a television show requires drama. Remember when I told you about MTV contacting me for the True Life: I'm a Newlywed show they were casting for? I was hesitant to pursue the opportunity because I knew that they would be looking for some sort of drama. I know we have drama, but is it drama that Drew and I could stand seeing back? I don't think that anything like what happened to Jon & Kate would be created from a little True Life episode, but we would still have to see ourselves at a nasty point. We have heated arguments like any couple. But, we can forgive and forget and life goes on. If we did that show, an argument would be caught and we would have to relive that everytime we saw the show. Probably not a pleasant part of reality tv.

Photo courtesy of TLC.

Derailed

About 8:30 PM last night, a Canadian National train consisting of 114 rail cars derailed. 78 of the railcars were carrying ethanol. Of those 78, 18 derailed and some burst into flames. Witnesses says that the train began hydroplaning after parts of Rockford received 4 inches of rain. Speculation is that part of the track was washed away. As of today, there is one confirmed fatality and 9 are injured.

Before:

After:

Truly unbelieveable! All photos are courtesy of Rockford Register Star staff

Wednesday's Word

Gravid / GRAV-id / adjective
Being with child; heav with young or eggs; pregnant.

For the moment the Cap'n Toby lies at rest outside the harbor, and the twelve-inch mackerels that Brian and I are cutting up for lobster bait are ripe, their bellies gravid with either blood-red roe or milt the color of sailors' bones.
-- Richard Adams Carey, Against the Tide

In North America, in contrast, the British conquered an empire; New France disappeared from history. But -- Anderson's profound theme -- Britain's triumph was gravid with defeat.
-- Jack Beatty, "Defeat in Victory", The Atlantic, December 2000

she is a bored society matron who seduces him before a carload gravid with already weary, now grossed-out morning commuters.
-- Rita Kempley, review of The Adjuster (MGM/UA Studios movie), Washington Post, June 29, 1992

Wednesday's Word

Disport / dis-PORT / intransitive verb
1. To amuse oneself in light or lively manner; to frolic.
2. To divert or amuse.
3. To display.

If you confine the kids' drinking to the college area, they will disport there and lessen the problem of the drunken car ride coming back from the out-of-town bar.
-- William F. Buckley Jr., "Let's Drink to It", National Review, February 27, 2001

I had to laugh, picturing Stuart and me in a red enamel tub, disporting ourselves among the suds.
-- Jacquelyn Mitchard, The Most Wanted

Few of the "carriage ladies and gentlemen" who disport themselves in Newport during the summer months, yachting and dancing through the short season, then flitting away to fresh fields and pastures new, realize that their daintily shod feet have been treading historic ground, or care to cast a thought back to the past.
-- Eliot Gregory, Worldly Ways and Byways

. . . those dolphins and narwals who disport themselves upon the edges of old maps.
-- Virginia Woolf, Night and Day

Post-Wedding Chop

Ok, so it's a very post wedding chop, but the first time I went to get a hair cut after the wedding I didn't have the guts to chop too much off. If you know me, I've had long hair for quite some time. It was down to just about the small of my back. I was long overdue for a hair cut.

Yep, I love it so much more!! I'm so glad to have it gone; I don't miss it one bit.

Wednesday's Word

Espy / ih-SPY / transitive verb
To catch sight of; to perceive with the eyes; to discover, as a distant object partly concealed, or not obvious to notice; to see at a glance; to discern unexpectedly; to spy; as, to espy land; to espy a man in a crowd.

The seamen espied a rock within half a cable's length of the ship
-- Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels

They espy no trouble in that.
-- John Lukacs, A Thread of Years

I have come to look at the world's map anew, espying not so much the art galleries or mountain ranges or rivers as places where cherished friends have taken up residence and would, perhaps, enjoy showing an old buddy the ins and outs, the meandering back road rather than the superhighway.
-- Alan Cowell, When a Host Becomes a Guest, New York Times, 29-Dec-02