Wednesday, October 27, 2010

I'm a housewife, not a bum.

What makes a housewife? A wife that stays at home while her husband works. What does a housewife do all day? I think that depends on the individual person. When I tell people that I work from home, I swear they equate that as being unemployed. They look at me with what I call the "slanty face." You know the slanty face when you see it. It's a sad attempt at an understanding smile with a recognizable covering of disbelief. 
I've seen that look enough times to know that what it means. It means the person doesn't really think I do anything. Try to see if you can guess where the slanty face would go in this example (but typical) conversation:

Person: Where do you work?
Me: I work from home.
Person: Oh, so what do you do all day?

In case you couldn't guess, the slanty face goes after the "oh." This usually strikes up a curse that I have to fight to keep inside. There are lots of better responses-"What kind of work does that involve?" "What does that entail?" "What types of things do you do?"

It's the "oh" that gets me. I swear it's a shortened version of "Oh, you bum." All I'm saying is let's not make assumptions, and more importantly, don't underestimate my hustle.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Love as a battlefield-is it really?


Now, you know I love T.V. I can pull a life lesson from any show I watch. I was listening to one of those music choice channels, the ones that play music but no videos, and I kept hearing song after song about battles, struggles, and wars with love. For some reason, it got on my nerves. Plus, the songs repeat after a while. Overkill!  I turned on the T.V., thinking that I could escape from the depression-inducing music, and started watching "How I  Met Your Mother" (season 5/ episode 7 "The Rough Patch" if you care). At some point in the episode Barney says, "You know what they say about relationships. Every waking moment's a battle." 


Are you kidding me?! My train of thought seemed forced in one direction at this point. Is it true? Is love really that Hellish? I know from experience that love can be awesome, blinding, premature, hurtful and overwhelming. A battle though? 




I don't expect every day of married life to be full of sunshine, ponies, and pansies. However, I don't expect to have to build a defense strategy to get through it either. I am well aware that these folk said "love" and "relationship" and not marriage. But if marriage isn't the biggest testament of a loving relationship, I don't know what is! Now if I think back to my pre-marriage/ pre-housewife days, my worst love experiences had less to do with love and more to do with a heap of other emotions gone awry. Do I think love is a battlefield? No; but I could very well be wrong. I think love is always good. I think the particular situation, people involved and extenuating circumstance can project an aura of badness upon it. Maybe the real battlefield is all of the obstacles you have to get through in order to get to love-real love.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Home Economics-an oldie but goodie

I took many random classes as a college undergraduate. My classes ranged from Alfred Hitchcock to a gods and goddesses course. Were these classes practical? No. Were they interesting? You bet! But as my years outside of the college classroom increase, I have come to realize that I may have made a mistake.

I went to Albright College. Their motto is something like "a different way of thinking." Well, they succeeded at that. The array of miscellaneous classes I took provided me with an arsenal of different thoughts. As a result, I tend to be halfway decent at random trivia games.

What class did I need? Home Economics. I see no reason why colleges don't offer home economics as an elective. I had home economics in middle school. We sewed a few things by hand and made a couple of meals. If the ability to sew on a button, repair a small hole or tear and keep from starving isn't invaluable, I don't know what is.

No matter what path you take in life, a solid home economics course could do nothing but help. You wouldn't even have to call it home economics. You could call it basic life skills. The final exam could be seeing if you can fix an entire Thanksgiving meal by yourself. Again, it's practical.

I don't proclaim to be a cook. I can, however, keep from starving. I can sew on a button or fix a small hole on an article of clothing. Now, as I was looking through the supermarket circular I was honest with myself. I have no idea how to fix a whole chicken or turkey. I know how it's done in theory, but a theory is far from a fact and nothing more than a strong maybe.