So I arrived home early yesterday morning after another glorious few days in the Poconos. This time Joe allowed me to bring one of my girlfriends (much to my surprise); he did pretty well, too, listening to us whine about men and how “fat” we are (that second little complaint was usually followed by shoving some more mozzarella cheese into each of our mouths), and he didn’t even object to our afternoon dance parties in the tiny living room.
Instead, he spent the majority of his time outside, doing what I refer to as “picking up sticks”. He hates when I say this (but laughs every time I do). But it all started one afternoon as I watch him from the kitchen window, as he indulged in his personal manly time: cigarette in one hand, beer in the other, Led Zeppelin on the radio, a large pile of sticks that had once been strewn across the yard, now stacked neatly one on top of the other. Of course I plopped right back on the couch after seeing this, only making a pit stop at the fridge for another beer.
But, I only joke around; he spends hours ripping up weeds, cleaning out gutters, and those “sticks” are our firewood so I can warm my toes at night. Occasionally I peer outside and ask if he’d like any help, but the answer is always “no, it’s okay”. Is it terrible that I breathe a tiny sigh of relief when he says this? I’m horrible. But I’d only hate to intrude on his alone time! …Right?
But, to feel like we were doing something other than eating all the food and drinking all the beer, this week I recruited my friend to help me dust every shelf in the house.
This took about…ten minutes.
And there we were, right back on the couch, watching Say Anything and eating fudge.
::sigh::
I got right back to it this morning, kickboxing until my arms fell off. (They didn’t actually fall off…but…you get the point.)
The afternoon came to a close after lunch with one of my best friends and the one and only adorable baby Joseph. He slept the 
entire time. (Even when I decided to get the other side of my nose pierced.)
Now to convince my manly man to take me out to dinner tonight.
Happy Friday, everyone. 🙂 I have some writing to do.
Nicole Marie
wordsandotherthings.wordpress.com 