Rites and Rituals

I got to thinking yesterday about my life together with S. He is such a great man. And we're coming up on ten years in December. We spent the first seven years virtually joined at the hip together -- work, home, days off, vacations, layovers. All together. We have developed some crazy routines, as I supposed all people do. But it's just funny to stand back, outside yourself, as if a camera were making a movie of your life. And then watch it with a bowl of popcorn and a Diet Lime Coke:

Along about 8-9pm, you'd see us having migrated away from our laptops and toward the TV for The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. One of us would get up during a commercial and go get both of our toothbrushes for us complete with applied toothpaste. We'd sit through the next segment brushing our teeth. Next commercial, we're off to spit and rinse. I apply liberal amounts of eye cream, take a pee, check the doors to be sure no boogie men (or women) can get in, turn down the heat, make sure the lights are out. He: Sets up the coffee for the ungodly hour of 4am....it goes off automatically (I would brew it fresh when I got up....I like it fresh better than having sat on the burner for a while). And this is the fun part: He gets out one Ambien and lays it out for me to come and split in half. We each get 50%. Sometimes we use my Lunesta instead....I like butterflies. We're half-pill poppers, I tell you. Then he usually does a last-minute check of his emails. And, we're off...up the stairs. The whole upstairs is our bedroom...500 square feet. Sometimes the TV goes on just to finish up The Colbert Report or American Idol or Andy Griffith on TV Land. Sometimes, we're zonked....the Ambien does work quickly. The neighbor's dogs are barking outside our bedroom window and sometimes we don't even hear them anymore. Vick's Vapo-Rub under our noses, a little bantering about this or that, lights out, and the spooning begins. Cozied up as close as I can get on the cold winter nights.....bare feet intertwined....he in his t-shirt and boxers...me in nothing. And always with an "I love you and appreciate you." Always.

PS: We'll repeat this performance nearly every night of the week. (Oops, I almost forgot....we turn on the "White Noise" machine too....keeps the car noises and dogs barking to a minimum -- and if we're sick or have colds, there's a whole other layer of Nyquil, Allegra, nasal decongestants, etc.). It's something else, I tell you.