Some people love listening to music at night.... some fall asleep listening to CNN or Jimmy Kimmel.... My favorite late night talk show is "Mudgie Talk". I had the true pleasure of listening to my favorite radio station four nights this week. Night one's topic was regarding staffing in bowling alleys. Night two the location was unclear but Mudgie "FUCKING knew how to do things!!!" I rolled over, kissed his cheek and said "I know honey of course you do"... and then he calmly explained in detail exactly how to do it. Night three was multiple topics that I don't remember but he was very animated each time he started one... whatever they were he was frustrated... so I turned, kissed him and told him I love him. He'd stop mid sentence, say "I love you too" and immediately fall back to sleep. The next morning he woke up wondering why I had woken him twice to tell him I love him and then he realized what I had done and grinned. He knows even in his sleep I have a calming effect on him. The last night his topic was dirty wet hands and no paper towels or napkins... I rolled over, kissed him and said "Use the cloth ones baby..." he said "ok" and went back to sleep.... The next day I told him he was obviously more distressed than he let on the day before when I ran out of all the paper products... Told him I have at least 50 damask napkins in my sideboard. I used to collect them.... We are good. :)
These moments make me grin... it's like a window into his dreams and I wake up just enough to remember he's beside me which warms my soul. I desperately try to remember exactly what he talks about when I wake up... I repeat key words to self so I will remember. I don't always.... and I have joked with him that I am going to start keeping a Mudgie Talk journal next to the bed to write down his musings... One of the nights during his talk show I woke up dying of heat- he's closely snuggled up spooning me and on my other side there was a wall of kitteh's from my chest to my knees. I was stuck under blankets that couldn't be moved without waking up something or someone I love. As I painstakenly moved inch by inch up out of the sheets to get cold air on my skin I thought life could be a whole lot worse than being surrounded by a love furnace. :)
When Bill is in Atlanta I get a glimpse of how my life can be. The coffee brought to me every morning while I sleep... the help around the house... I've been a single mom for 7 years... and help is a radical concept... hell lets look at the 11 years I was married... I never found that the dishes were miraculously cleaned overnight... I'd go away for four days leaving a clean stocked kitchen and I'd come back to an empty kitchen with overflowing sink. I remember telling my ex there was no magic faerie that moved the dishes to the dish washer and he was just as capable as me to do it. Novel concept? Not. Yet I've never had this assistance. All week I came downstairs in the morning to coffee being ready, the dogs let out and the dishes cleaned.... these simple gestures are the key to my heart.
He's loving cooking for me and the kids... I've taken to calling him my personal chef. He's Mudgie in his glory making fabulous dinners that EVERYONE, even my picky child, is eating. Here's another new concept to me... being told to sit and handed a drink while someone else cooks for me. Can I help? Nope. We have fun cooking along each other too though... one night he made enchiladas while I made fresh guacamole.... another morning we made bacon and french toast... later falling asleep on the couch cuddled together... How gloriously normal is that?
Also "normal" is the making rounds with friends... Cherie was "home" Tuesday night, Thursday we all had brunch at Angelia and MJ's... and Thursday night Kirsten and Mark came over with her kids for dinner. Couples things with friends that are my life's blood. It's meant alot to me to watch my friends get to know Bill and adore him too. Even my son is warming up to him... plopping down on the sofa next to him for a while... The dogs are putty in his hands... This sweet goofy lovable gentle giant is making a mark on my home and finding his place in it with very little problems...
Speaking of making a mark on my home... literally... he rigged my house Griswold style with Christmas lights... He spent two days climbing up and down and chasing lights that weren't working... reanalyzing exactly how they should hang. He was a man on a mission... and finished after I left for work Friday.
He's got a project lined up for when he returns in a week. He's going to tidy up the cool prohibition era bar I nabbed off of Angelia. She sent me a picture a couple of weeks ago to show me this cool piece she'd grabbed for her booth and I said "MINE!" without any more info... I LOVE unique pieces. I was planning on using it to jump start the remodel of my 'playroom' but Bill and I have been talking about the piece and we think we are going to make it our coffee bar in our bedroom. He's going to fix the couple of spots that are missing on the veneer... work on the lighting... and help me order the perfect mirror to go in back on the top. I'll post pictures after he's done with that "honey do"...
Thursday he looked at me and said "Your work is never done is it?" Any single parent knows this to be a true statement. Any time out we take for ourselves we pay for it later... the house doesn't stop getting dirtier.. the laundry stock piles... the sink fills with dishes... it can be overwhelming at times and is one of the reasons I love my job... I get paid to have downtime... time that I can sit and not feel guilty for laying in bed longer than normal. The only time I truly have nothing to do. So it's just hard to put into words how very grateful I am to have someone that comes in and is instantly part of a 'team' that gets it's work and happily takes some of that work off of my hands. Every bit of help is appreciated tenfold. That's part of a great relationship isn't it? I appreciate him so I do loving things for him... which he soaks up and makes him want to do more loving things for me. It's a cycle of love that builds each other up instead of tearing each other down... Novel concept? Not.
"Nobody Does it Better" - Carly Simon
Nobody does it better
Makes me feel sad for the rest
Nobody does it half as good as you
Baby, you're the best
I wasn't looking but somehow you found me
It tried to hide from your love light
But like Heaven above me
The spy who loved me
Is keeping all my secrets safe tonight
And nobody does it better
Though sometimes I wish someone could
Nobody does it quite the way you do
Why'd you have to be so good?
The way that you hold me
Whenever you hold me
There's some kind of magic inside you
That keeps me from running
But just keep it coming
How'd you learn to do the things you do?
And nobody does it better
Makes me feel sad for the rest
Nobody does it half as good as you
Baby, baby, darlin', you're the best
Baby, you're the best
Darlin', you're the best
It's been an amazing week... Both Bill and I are happier than we've been in a long time... Our lives are blending together well. For a long time I've been afraid to have someone in my house. Yet he keeps showing me in actions (without complaint or even requests) what a true team does. I just keep grinning my ass off and my heart swells with love.
