Compromises

Well, I won't lie, I haven't been feeling writer-happy for a couple of weeks now. I sat down last Friday wanting to write about newlywed life and how it's a bit different from what I expected... and then I realized that I really didn't know what I expected. I guess I had a picture of myself sitting in front of the couch one evening drinking a glass of red wine while organizing papers that were spread all around the living room floor, and him sitting on the couch watching ESPN and making side jokes about the players or their coaches. Yeah, okay, maybe I had a small expectation of what it would be like.

As of these past couple of weeks, things have been far from that picture. For one thing, we up and moved to a city where we know no people, have no house/apartment, and we live out of suitcases in a hotel room. The good news is that he is making new friends with his new job and we are just 2 hours away from his family, we signed the lease for a beautiful 2 bedroom and 2 bathroom apartment, and we  are staying in the best hotel in the city. Things are not so bad and I always have to remind myself when I start to picture that little scene I expected before. The apartment will be ready at the end of August so we won't stay here forever. I won't be teaching in the fall BUT I will be getting certification real soon so maybe I'll have a chance to pick up a mid-year teaching job in the winter time.

There was also another realization I had about married life. We've been going long distance for a while that it was a bit of a culture shock seeing him everyday again. Not only that, but him being the last person I saw at night (every night) and the first person in the morning (every morning) has been a new feeling. My expectations were that I thought our habits and quirks would mesh together once we lived in the same place. Everything we did, our routines and our "ways" from when we were single would just magically synchronize in one wonderfully perfect day after day after day.

Hahahahahahahahahaha... yeah, no.

I don't snooze my alarm. I really never got into that habit of waking up a half an hour after the first alarm rang. I've never snoozed an alarm more than 2 times. This man, my husband, whom I love dearly snoozes every 5 minutes from 6:15 to 6:45. THAT'S 6 TIMES!!!

He is a very thorough cleaner-man. He is scared to death of spiders and has been ever since our first lease fell through because of brown recluse sightings in the apartment. He is also extremely paranoid of finding them in clothes, shoes, showers and drawers. I, on the other hand, am a bit forgetful and maybe a bit messy, too. I wish I could say I was all domestic and cleaning-friendly, but I went to college without ever doing my own laundry before leaving my parent's house and never knowing how to cook and really clean properly. See? He's been irked a bit by my habits, too :P

Soooo, what do you do when you don't know how to live together, yet? You compromise! He snoozes twice every morning (maybe three times) and I try to be as consciously neat as I can be. He gets annoyed at my computer, iPod, phone, and kindle usage time and so I don't use them as much when he's around. I get annoyed at his lame jokes... haha, just kidding. They are lame but I still like them ;)

Anyways, that's what I have learned as a newlywed. Compromises are so important, and also acceptance for when compromising isn't the best. We have our weird and annoying habits, but those are what make us US and I can't be more happy. :)