Now I Get Why Puppies Wait by the Door All Day

Posted on December 16, 2008
Filed Under Life With The Boss, Newlywed | 2 Comments

The very first post I wrote for this site was about how I like to be alone. I wrote about how married life doesn’t let you spend that much time by yourself, but it has its perks because you get to spend a large portion of your day with someone you really like.

On Friday, The Boss and I celebrated our Five-Monthaversary, and today will be the first time that we’re in the same state, but won’t see each other all day.

The Boss went home to visit his family in New England for a weekend a few months ago, and I went to Chicago to visit my cousins for about a week in November, but I think it’s different when you know that the other person has gone on a trip.
You expect to feel a little lonely the first day, but you know that by the end of the week, your schedules will return to normal. Life will pick up right where it left off, and the two of you will, once again, be just like those annoying couples in high school that walk through the hallways with their hands in each other’s back pockets.

Ever since I quit my job, I’ve been working from home.
And ever since we got married, The Boss has been looking for a new job.
Which basically translates to: We’ve spent EVERY.SINGLE.MOMENT of the last five months, together.

Our schedules involve us getting up around the same time, eating breakfast together, working side-by-side on our computers together, going to pray together, walking to the grocery store together, eating lunch together, and watching episodes of “Sunny” together.

We split up when I go to the library, or when he has a job interview, but when we return home, we hug and laugh and cry as if we haven’t seen each other in months.
When one of us goes to check the mail or take out the trash, the other person stands inside by the glass door waving with a big cheesy smile.
And when you return inside (after all of 11.3 seconds) you’ll most definitely be greeted with a hug.

(And World, right about now is where I feel like we should all throw up together. I never thought I’d use this blog to talk about how head over heels in love I am with the man I married, so maybe while I’m in that position, I should puke on myself and then return to typing with a clear head.)
I’ll be right back…

The Boss and I have our own gym/workout schedules, which is cool, because it lets us spend a healthy amount of time away from each other while doing something productive. We also take a religion class on Sundays for which we mostly study individually because we have separate homework assignments.
(I’m in the really advanced class, probably because of all those years I spent in Sunday School).

But lately, The Boss has had multiple job interviews per week, which is not a problem, because they’re for a few hours at a time, and we can survive that much time apart.
But this morning he left for a daylong training seminar, which one of the companies he’s applied to require each candidate take before a selection for a new hire is made.
Yesterday afternoon, when The Boss got home from the first half of the interview, he told me about today’s seminar.

“Aww man. I don’t want to be gone all day. I was hoping I could just hang around the house in my robe.”

“Well, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. is a regular workday, and if you get this job, that’s the schedule you’re going to have.”

“But then I’m not going to see you all day tomorrow. And if I get this job, I’ll never see you.”

I kind of laughed, considering I’m home all day and we’re bound to run into each other sometime.

But as nightfall approached, I started to feel a little nervous about today.
Man, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. is a really long time.
NO, NO IT’S NOT, YOU LOSER! IT’S A NORMAL WORK DAY! SOMETHING THE TWO OF YOU IDIOTS HAVE NOT EXPERIENCED IN FIVE MONTHS!

At night when I got in bed, The Boss was already sleeping. I scooted close to him and hugged him really tight.
It took me a little while to fall asleep and when my eyes opened this morning he was gone.
I jumped out of bed and ran into the hallway.
Lucky for me, he was standing there adjusting the jacket to his suit.

“I thought you left,” I said, totally frazzled.
“I don’t want to go,” was his response.

It was a little after 7:30 a.m. and I tried to remember the last time I was up so early.
I couldn’t think straight — my feet were cold and I had to pee.
I walked him downstairs and gave him breakfast, which he reluctantly took because yesterday he found a Dunkin’ Donuts right next to the building where his interview was.

We said goodbye, and as I watched him walk down the driveway, I saw a handful of parents and their children waiting for the school bus. As The Boss got in his car, a little kid came sprinting up the hill in front of our house with a book in his hand. His dad was waving him on to hurry, and just then, the bus pulled up.

And I nearly burst into tears.

I suddenly felt our slow and easy newlywed life shifting gears into high-speed, where every day blurs together, and you see each other for one hour a day, and then you have kids that you’re so busy raising you never see your spouse, and when you go on vacation you have to take those little stinkers with you, and for the rest of my life, AFTER THIS VERY MOMENT, we would never eat our meals together or watch TV together, or stay up in bed talking or EVER HAVE ANY MORE FUN. EVER.

The room started spinning but I got myself together for The Final Wave. 
See, when one of us drives away, both of us wave for as long as we can see each other, and then we talk about it later.
“Hey, I saw you all the way ‘til the Stop Sign!”

God, someone slap us…but get The Boss first.

As I prepared for our long wave goodbye, I was startled when I saw a huge yellow school bus nearly run The Boss’s Nissan flat into the pavement.
There was no time for a long wave, just a quick window roll-down and a few wiggling fingers.
I glared at the bus driver.
How dare he be more concerned with getting a bus full of kids to school on time than letting me experience an unnecessary, lengthy, over exaggerated goodbye with my husband?

I dragged my feet up the stairs to the bedroom, plopped myself in the bed, and drew the covers right over my face.
Great, first our life is stolen because people have to work until they’re 70, and now we can’t even wave for 10 minutes because kids have to get to school.

Life sucks.

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