Megan Stielstra's Blog

It was one of those conversations which isn’t so much a conversation but rather you talking aloud to yourself and assuming the other person is just tuning out ‘cause that’s what you’d be doing if the situation were reversed, and I was all, “blah blah I have to buy lip balm, and coffee, and email that story to Kim and get Mojo more bully sticks and pick up Christopher’s dry cleaning and—” at which point the person I was talking to interrupted to say, “Aw, you’re such a good wife!” and I suddenly felt defensive, like, “I’m not picking up his dry cleaning because I’m a good wife, I’m picking up his dry cleaning because I have the car today, and it’s on my way home whereas it’s like two miles out of his way and we have an early flight to Portland tomorrow, for my stepbrother’s wedding, and Christopher has to wear a suit ‘cause it’s sort of formal, but also I’m picking it up ‘cause he picked it up last time and the time before that, too, in FACT, he’s usually the one picking up the dry cleaning, and he cooks a lot, too, because he’s better at it than me and also ‘cause he’s nice and wants to do nice things for me, and I want to do nice things for him ‘cause he’s really busy right now and we try to help each other, which is not my job as a wife insofar as a Woman Serves Man sort of thing but IS my job in that I’m part of the team that Christopher and I are, you know?” but what I said aloud was, “Yes, I am a good wife,” because I really want to be. It’s a goal of mine. Of the most maximum priority. Which has little to do with dry cleaning either way.