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September 17, 2007
Home Economics
Good friend Sster tagged (rather indiscriminately, I might add) me with the following blog meme. And so, due to the gentle provocations of Attic Man's Baby Mamma, here's a peek into the domestic side of Digital Digressions.
What does a typical day look like at your house?
- 6 - "Wake." If you could call it that. It's more like a terrible pain at the core of your being, a tearing of the very fabric of your soul. Waking up is not a good thing.
- 6-6:30 - I shower while The Spouse eats breakfast.
- 6:30-7:30 - I give the cats their various medications, make lunches for The Spouse and myself, and eat breakfast. The Spouse showers.
- 7:30-8:00 - Depending on whether we have to shave or not, we leave for work earlier or later in this range. We carpool. It's nice.
- 8-5 - The Spouse does HR stuff at the hospital. I don't really know what that entails. I teach, meet with students, work on my own research, advise grad students on their Ph.D. program applications, meet with colleagues for department stuff, fill out department/university paperwork, prep for classes, etc.
- 5-5:30 - The Spouse and I leave work and drive home.
- 5:30-8 - The cats get fivesies. (We have refused their petitions to give them elevensies.) In the upstairs study, The Spouse checks his work e-mail and does work. At the downstairs dining room table, I check my work e-mail and do work.
- 8 - Exhausted and somewhat dejected, we regroup and attempt to find something quick and easy to make for dinner.
- 8:30-9:30 - Exhausted, somewhat dejected, but now with food-like substances in hand, we collapse in front of the TV and watch episodes of The Daily Show or The Colbert Report our DVR has recorded for us.
- 9:30-10 - Exhausted, somewhat dejected, but now fed and mildly entertained, we give the cats their evening meds, feed them dinner, and then collapse into bed. Rinse and repeat.
How do you divide up household responsibilities?
We try to be egalitarian, but it doesn't always work. The Spouse is really very good about litter box patrol duties, and I dispense the morning cat medications and make lunches for us (economical and it allows -- sigh -- us both to continue working at our desks). We try to share grocery shopping, dinner-preparation, and laundry duties. The cleaning happens when it happens. And when one of us can no longer stand the (un)hygenic state of our domicile.
The Spouse is the financial overseer (because numbers give me crying fits), and I'm responsible for all home decor and redecorating (much, much more of which is needed) duties. I'm also the tech support staff. I, for instance, bought The Spouse a spiffy new 22" flat-screen monitor last week and installed it with new desktop art (which I had to Photoshop first to remove some really ugly labels). I'll also be buying The Spouse a new computer some day in the near future. That installation project will take significantly more time. The Spouse, meanwhile, inquires politely about the bizarre PayPal charges that sometimes appear on our online credit card statement when I'm trying to work up new (or ongoing/undying) research projects.
How do your ideals inform your choices? How do your choices fall short of them?
I don't want to be an anarcho-marxist, but The Man makes it so dang hard not to be! We've adopted the "From Each According To His Ability, To Each According To His Need" motto. I need financial help ("Did I pay that?" "No, you didn't. Again.") and The Spouse wasn't born with the gay color-sense genes. He also wasn't born with the patience to deal with tech support. Ideally, we complement each other and present, as a team, almost a fully-functioning human individual.
It's easy, though, to infantalize yourself with a split responsibility schema. Since I don't have to deal with the finances, it's easy for me to just let that part of my brain rot away. I'm not sure, now 11 1/2 years later) whether I even could balance and maintain my own checkbook anymore. And if I'm not around or able to take the time (the long, long time it takes) to deal with tech support, tech issues don't get resolved and The Spouse's life is immeasurably poorer for it.
Do you have a secret weapon? If so, what is it?
I have recently learned that I have a secret weapon: LEMON BARS. I had no idea citrus fruit and sugar had such power. The Spouse and I went to a brunch at some friends' home and my lemon bars were a big hit. Several brunchers announced that they were going to marry the pastry chef who brought those delectable confections into their life. It was kinda creepy. (And boy were they disappointed when they learned it was yours truly.) But in the words of The Spouse: "Mmmm, lemony!" I need to learn how to harness the power of my lemon bars to take over the world.
And yes, I did get that Kelis song stuck in my head...
My lemon bars bring all the boys to the yard,
And they're like, it's better than yours.
Damn right, it's better than yours.
I can teach you, but I'd have to charge.
Sster ends her post with a great clip from HBO's new-ish show The Angelika before La Vie En Rose, which was awesome), and the preview looked AWFUL. What is it with previews that suck? I saw a looooong preview for Knocked Up (before 300) that made me want to rip my eyes out of my head to stop the pain... and I likeKatherine Heigl! Anyway, in honor of La Vie En Rose and Edith Piaf, here's another formidable Conchords clip:
Posted by reparent at September 17, 2007 8:07 PM
Comments
Not surprisingly The Spouse (moi) is not prepared to leave this Home Economics lecture unrebutted.
Fact: The ideal day Chez Nous begins with NO shaving and ends with The Reading In Bed.
Fact: We need a new dishwasher. This is a clever double-entendre meaning I don't do enough dishes, The Professor is tired of doing dishes, and our mechanical dishwasher BREAKS stuff.
Fact: Those lemon bars remain a true mystery.
Fact: Any song with "Fa Fa" in its lyrics may be incomprehensible to yours truly, but may be fully redeemed if its finale is set in a disco!
Posted by: coeurlion at September 18, 2007 7:03 PM
Query: Does the Spouse have a Secret Weapon?
Not gonna play out the meme m'self--I'm holding too many simultaneous jobs to enjoy "typical" daily schedules. I can share certain details about my Secret Weapon, though. I'm a Cyborg. I have a manifesto, and I have a plan. Really. It involves "All Along the Watchtower" for some reason.
Posted by: Liam at September 18, 2007 9:55 PM
No, I'm afraid I have no Secret Weapon.
Well, actually, if I did, it's so double-super-top-secret that even I don't know if it exists.
The Professor would be better able to respond to this inquiry. Who am I to know what jerks His chain?
Posted by: coeurlion at September 19, 2007 6:58 PM