Thursday, August 13, 2015

1385 INTRO TO MY INEXPERIENCED ADVENTURES INTO PARENTING Part 19

1967
As to that lasting change, which will strengthen friendship's bond between two couples whose apartments share a common wall, well, here's what happened when a creative plan bounced out of my mind into Will's ear, and once my sense of logic locked into his, we knocked on Jack and Jill's front door to bounce that ball into their court with this hope in mind:   As everyone's needs had been considered before I'd chosen to open my mouth, Will and I felt hopeful that upon listening to an idea that creativity had conjured up, we'd all team up and declare the simplicity of this plan a slam dunk.  And here's why this plan appealed to all four:

Before the big snow, Will had sat at our borrowed card table, each night after dinner, head down, studying intently until it was time for the nightly news when he'd close up shop, turn on the TV, and join me in bed for half an hour before spontaneously closing his eyes, as though hypnotized to fall into an exhausted, comatosed sleep.

During those evening hours that Will had spent studying, pre-blizzard, I'd been relegated to the bedroom and asked not to make an appearance in the kitchen for snacks for fear of disrupting the med student's method of mind wearying memorization, which had need of uninterrupted continuity of thought.  Being a pleaser, extraordinaire, I complied, night after night, without a complaint, and thus did it become my habit, right after dinner, to stock the bedroom with snacks, just like a nut, squirreling munchies within my reach while grading papers, marking tests, or nursing my loneliness by befriending characters in well-written novels ... rarely did I think to turn on the TV.  During our first year of wedded bliss (?), Will's wiry frame lost 10 pounds to nervous energy, which, to my misfortune, had found their way onto me—plus five more for good measure!  And having gained weight, I saw myself as too unattractive to entice my exhausted husband to pay me any mind, which is why the leopard skin found itself forgotten in the back of my closet just as my heart felt forsaken on the back burner of Will's mind—until fate sent that blessed blizzard of all blizzards offering me a glimpse of the attentive bridegroom, whom I'd eagerly invited to know me in a biblical way on our wedding night, less than one year, past ...

2015
As for now, I've run out of time to describe why my plan appealed to Jack and Jill, because my door bell will be ringing, momentarily, and when I open the door, a dear high school friend, who just flew in from the Midwest, will find herself welcomed into my arms before being ushered into our guest room to unpack and freshen up; so in readiness to switch tracks, I'll push 'pause' on my blog until tomorrow, when my friend drives off in her rent-a-car to enjoy the weekend with her son ...

PS Please click on two comments below ...

2 comments:

  1. I too spent evenings in the bedroom-with a tiny black/white TV-while El studied law in the main room of our 3 room abode. You had 4 rooms!

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  2. I love when you let me know how classically your life has mirrored mine! Your comments offer me reason to continue to expose that which goes on behind closed doors to those who wonder how many others experience limitations, which can change for the better when fate joins hands with creativity in hopes of offering closed mind sets reason to open at least enough to absorb trains of thought, born of insight into respecting needs, all around :)

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