Best Laid Plans

Hey,

Hope everyone had a good holiday weekend. Mine went fairly well, all things considered. Saturday The Wife was sick so we pretty much crashed at home. The boy went to a friend's for the day and I took care of making food and such as she slept. Sunday, we had a BBQ and The Wife and I barely avoided a nasty fight as she went out to do the shopping and I stayed home to clean the house, etc. Of course, I cleaned all the wrong things, in the wrong way, and at the wrong time, so she started giving me grief and my hackles went up. We both went to neutral corners and avoided a blow up but it was touch-and-go there for a while. The BBQ was good, everyone enjoyed . . . except for me. Oh, it was actually a lot of fun but mid-afternoon I caught a blinding migraine -the crippling kind- and I had to keep smiling and playing the good host through it all. It was awful. No sooner did the last guest leave than I just kicked off my shoes and crawled straight into bed, whimpering. It was (mostly) gone by Monday a.m. but I still was dragging a bit on the holiday. We did brunch out, some quick shopping, and dined on leftovers from the BBQ in the back yard for dinner. It was a nice, quiet day.

Got back to work Tuesday, expecting a quiet day, only to discover I'd forgotten two new hires that I had to train. It was a long and crazy day! Then I had to run down to the In-Laws to pick up the boy (he hung there yesterday cuz school didn't start until today) then back home for a Boy Scout meeting that contained a wonderfully awkward conversation wherein I had to inform an adult he was no longer welcome to camp with us because of his behavior. Big Fun!

So, today is the day I start my new life plan. I figured, since the boy was back to school and we were settling back down to a regular schedule, this'd be as good a day as any to start. I got mentally ready for the changes last night, planning to keep myself very calm all day today and ease my way into the new schedule. Well, that plan didn't survive first encounter! As of right now, The Wife is quite pissed at me; certain that I am plotting diabolic schemes to disrupt her life and endanger her child. I, in turn, am annoyed at her for being relentlessly inconsiderate of her spouse.

To translate: she set her alarm for 5:00 a.m today (Why? Only God knows!) Four hours before she needs to be in work (though part of her anger was that she wanted to go in early today - 8:00!) It is also 2-1/2 hours before the bus comes for my boy and 1-1/2 hours before I needed to get up. The Wife is not good about getting up. Her alarm goes off every morning and she sleeps through it until I shake her awake and make her go turn it off. Usually, this isn't a big deal (although it is always annoying!) because she sets the alarm for only 1/2 hour before she needs to get up. Today, it was four hours and I was NOT a happy camper! I woke her three times and each time she just hit the snooze and came back to bed. After time #3, I got up myself, turned the alarm fully OFF and got another hour of sleep. I got myself and the boy up, showered, fed, dressed and ready for our days. As he was heading for the bus, he woke her up to kiss her good-bye and she freaked at the time. I actually think she freaked because her son doesn't need her to get him ready for school anymore but she won't admit that so she lost it on me instead, accusing me of intentionally turning off the alarm so she wouldn't wake up. I'm not sure what she thinks I was "intentionally" trying to prevent . . . her going to work early? (why the hell would I care - though I would've woken her up earlier if she'd bothered to mention the idea to me) Perhaps I was intentionally preventing her from helping the boy get ready for school? We discussed the whole program for the year last week and I was doing what we talked about: letting him take care of himself. He was 100% ready to go ten minutes before he had to leave, with no stress, no yelling, no last minute scrambling . . . I'm not getting the problem. I'm male: I never do.

In any event, she's not speaking to me at the moment. though she did send me a formally polite -and wonderfully chill- e-mail telling me she was working late to make up for the time she missed this a.m. (because of me, of course!) and spelling out all the things I'd have to attend to since I caused such a ruckus in her orderly life. It's remarkable how you ladies mange to live with us men . . . we're so unreasonable!

Well, so that's how the first day of my serene, new, lifestyle has started out. How's your day going?

Later!