Death on a disc

My dear husband and I started a new fitness program on Wednesday to better ourselves. I have always been extremely motivated when it comes to working out while my husband takes a more relaxed approach (meaning he watches people work out while sitting on the couch eating chips and salsa). We purchased the P90X fitness program (which we found out about while watching an infomercial in our hotel room on a weekend vacation) and read up on it and decided to make the commitment to do this.

We wanted to do this together to help keep each other motivated. My husband works the day shift while I work evenings, so we have been encouraging each other through text messages. I was extremely pumped about starting this because I love challenges and setting and reaching goals, especially when you get to see and experience the results.

Because of our different body make-ups, I am doing the lean program and he is doing the classic (which means he will soon be speaking with an Arnold Schwarskahoochie accent) while I will just be doing a lot of toning. So on today, day 3 of this blessed fitness journey, I did arms and shoulders and the ab ripper x. My chips and salsa husband had already done the ab ripper x on a previous day, and had commented/complained on the difficulty of this workout.

Let me give you a brief description of what this entails. Pain, lots and lots of pain!!! I text my husband/partner in this adventure and explained briefly what I thought of this particular exercise today. I summed it all up in one brief sentence, "The ab ripper x is the devil!" He responded with an I told you so comment of support for me and asked how did you do? Wanting to remain the motivated and encouraging partner I responded truthfully but positively. I text back that I simply curled up in a ball, rocking on the floor, sucking my thumb.

Quotas

I have the very "annoying" habit, or so I assume it is based upon family and friends responses to me, of repeating myself over and over. Now I personally do not understand how commenting briefly every once in awhile upon a subject matter can be so annoying, but apparently I am misinformed or uneducated or lack proper social skills. Whatever the case may be, it has come to the forefront of my mind due to my husbands newly acquired habit.

I will give you a brief example... My husband and I will be sitting in his office looking at some riveting article online (that I must read immediately or I will be placed upon the "you are not an informed person" list permanently) and I will casually comment that his trash needs to be emptied. He will acknowledge the comment and we will continue in the present matter of educating me for the outside world. After what seems like an eternity, I will notice the trash once more and offer a reminder that when we are done, it would be an ample opportunity for him to empty his trash. He will continue on with the conversation without acknowledgment.

Now at this point I am faced with the utmost of conflicts. Did my husband hear me and choose to ignore me, or did he not hear because he was enthralled with what he was doing online and I need to offer the bit of helpful advice once more. I will toil with this matter for quite some time. Mind you, I am not only having to pay attention to life matters that we are discussing, but I also have to make a decision on wether or not I need to help remind him about the trash (because all women know that men are completely incapable of remembering the simplest of task when they are busy solving world issues). So before too much time passes, I will make the decision that my husbands welfare is more important than my need to listen to him, and I will politely wait for a break in the conversation where I can gently remind him once more about the full trash can that is sitting next to his desk about to explode onto the floor.

This is where my husbands new habit kicks in. He then tells me that I have only reminded him about the trash 3 times in the last 25 minutes and I will have to wait until my daily quota of 10 has been met before he can empty said trash. Now this is clearly an overreaction on his part as I was only looking out for him and the welfare of his office.

But I am trying to be the bigger person in all of this and extend some grace to my husband with his newly formed sarcasm. For he will inevitably thank me one day for consistently reminding him about simple tasks that must be completed for life in this universe to continue as we know it.

Rotating Brains

My husband and I were having a conversation one afternoon and being the good wife that I am (I seem to have the How To Annoy Your Husband manual memorized) I interrupted his thoughts with my own life altering, world changing, can't wait another second words of wisdom. My husband graciously extended me the floor (which needed to be mopped) and allowed me to spew out a few sentences. I began to feel guilty for doing this to him AGAIN so I felt the need to explain why I had done so. I looked him squarely in the eye and was just as honest with him as I could be. I explained that if I had not grabbed the thought as it was going by in my head (picture a scrolling marque) that my brain would rotate and I would lose the thought probably forever. Understanding the urgency of the situation for me, my husband just smiled the bless your heart smile that I seem to receive often from him and continued on in the conversation. Only now he looked at me with a little more love in his eyes. For he was now privy to a little bit more of what makes me uniquely me... Not quite sure what that is but is seems to make him smile.