Life Lessons From Old Reruns…
June 26, 2011As one of my favorite TV characters Meredith Gray says, “We’re adults. When did that happen? And how do we make it stop?” Over the past year Tom and I have definitely felt like we’ve truly had to make some adult decisions and have aged well out of our respective almost 25 and 26 year age groups. We’ve been forced to deal with situations and issues that most couples who have been married for 40 years have never had to face. There is no need to discuss the dirty details since you know the full story I’m sure you can fill in the blanks.
With adulthood comes having to deal with some gross situations since your parents are no longer there to kill a spider or clean up the bird the dogs just killed in the backyard but I’m a lucky girl and the hubs usually takes care of most of those J “Adulthood” for us now means instead of spending the weekends going out of town, or studying or planning something we spend our Saturday mornings at the local Farmer’s Market, wandering around Lowe’s buying supplies for our next home project and meeting up with friends for a few drinks because it’s definitely true that once you graduate from college “you can’t drink like you used to”.
We’ve kept the home projects small recently but I decided to tackle our front garden bed yesterday since it was a nice day. While I was weeding (which was about 5 years overdue and I’m sure our neighbors were secretly jumping for joy) Tom was keeping me company and stated that, “as he gets older he finds himself enjoying time in the yard”. Well, I’m glad to hear him say that because I definitely didn’t get the gardening gene from my mom. I’m lucky to keep any sort of plant alive for a week. If I didn’t have Ellie to remind me at 7am and 6pm that it was time to feed them, the dogs might be a little skinnier than they should be.
Since Tom has calmed me down in my older years, I no longer feel the need to have something planned every second of the day. Couch time and TV time are actually pretty nice, after all the chores are done of course. We’ve recently been watching reruns of Home Improvement, which is a show we both grew up watching with our families. It’s funny how the show has a completely different meaning now in our “adult” years. Some of the inside jokes between Tim and Jill are hilarious and nothing that either of us picked up on at the ripe age of 8!! The most recent episode we watched was the one where Tim is trying to get the boys to help him clean the house for Jill. As the boys are complaining because cleaning is “a women’s job” Tim gives them a life lesson and says that they are enlighten men and are comfortable enough in their manhood to clean the house. It was one of the earlier episodes so it probably took place in the early 90’s but it made me realize that I’m lucky in my adult life that Tom doesn’t view me or women that way (even though he jokes). Of course if he did we probably wouldn’t be together!! I’ll give credit to my dad who always helped around the house and now is the full time house cleaner to me knowing that I needed that trait in a man J
Growing up and becoming a true adult comes with some gross, dirty, I don’t want to deal with this type of moments and situations but in many cases we aren’t given a choice. Since life can throw some messy situations your way even when you think you’re not ready all you can do is take the good with the bad. Enjoy the simple Saturdays of Farmer’s Markets and old reruns. Tackle a small home project or grab a beer with friends you haven’t seen in a while because at the end of the day those small acts will help you enjoy and deal with those bigger, chaotic adult situations.
Happy Sunday,
L