Selling the Couch, part III - The Encouchening

Katie sits in the front seat (to forfend the roving parking cops and their vicious tickets) while Bert and I wrestle the love seat into the back of the car. It almost fits, but the overstuffed arms, always a point of contention in our home, are getting in their last licks by simply being a couple of inches too stubborn to get the hatchback closed.

I finally manage to tie the door down, and Bert stands up and brushes off his hands on his pants legs.

"Cheers, man," he says with a smile, and shakes my hand, just as it starts to snow.

3/24/11 - then who CAN you tell?

Woke up early to do yoga because I won't be able to do it tonight, as I have rehearsal. Katie is despondent over her job, not because it's particularly hard (though it is) as much as it violates her intense sense of justice and fairness. Apparently some people are slacking but get better tables and more money while she busts her ass and gets less.

When I go to sleep, I need darkness and quiet, while she prefers sound and light.

3/21/11 - Nothing can be OK, too

Katie's not feeling well, but she still has to go to work today, thankfully not a double shift. She and I will be home tonight, and we will eat ice cream (after I do yoga and sit - I believe I am at 13 consecutive days, which is only 23 days off my goal for lent!) and watch Battlestar Galactica.

We sat in silence for a while last night, and then she apologized for not having anything interesting to say. I told her, "We've got a million months to go, and chances are we won't always have something to say."

2/16/11 bathroom humor

I come back from the bathroom after a particularly difficult session. I'm shaking a little, a little nauseated, chills.

"Well, that sucked," I say, attempting to be discreet.

She looks at me in horror.

"Why would you *tell* me that?" she yells.

2/4/11 The smell test

Lying in bed after a long day, she buries her face in my chest and inhales deeply, then sits up with a suspicious look on her face.

"You don't smell like you," she says studying my face, leans in, sniffs my neck, my armpit, then sits back again, with a comical look of disappointment on her face.

When she comes back from long trips, or if I've been away for a few days, this happens, and admittedly, we have been ships passing in the night, with her working doubles and me rehearsing.

But I think it might be something else: "Well, I did eat a lot of garlic tonight...."

12/21/10 Cold winter's night that was *so* deep

The moon turns coppery red as the last sliver of light slips off the edge into darkness. Katie pulls the blanket she's wearing tighter around her and hides behind me as a freezing wind blasts across the roof, making the bare winter trees creak and moan.

"I feel like this is the end of a lot of things, like this season is the beginning of something new, and I really want to stay to see the moon come out again," I say, staring up at the distant smudge that was once a full moon.

She looks up at it for a few minutes, shivering, until she finally says, plaintively, "Do you mind if I go inside?"

12/10/10 Sometimes I get carried away

"No, but really, it's like, every single artist worth anything has a connection to spirituality, whether they mean it in a religious sense or not," I say, gesturing drunkenly and toweling off.

From behind the shower curtain, she says, "Well, OK, like who?"

Now I'm really getting warmed up, and begin ticking them off on my fingers: "Well, Prince, obviously, and Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, Jim Morrison...."

She shuts off the water, and sighs in exasperation, "I can't even talk to you when you're like this."

11/27/10 We tend to do better at parallel play

After my fourth continue, I finally throw the controller down in disgust. "Listen," I say, "just try to get through the boss by yourself. It'll be more fun for you."

Katie battles on against one of Bowser's minions for a while longer before she gives up, but she really wanted to try to work with me on this, and I silently vow to polish up my Mario skills to make game night more successful in the future.

11/10/10 Contrasts

I sit on the mat in the half-light before the sun comes up, and breathe deeply. My mat faces roughly east, as it has in almost every apartment I've ever lived that suited me at all, and I can see out the windows on the front of our building clouds lit from below by the rising sun shading from a vivid pink to a brilliant gold against a gray sky.

My wedding ring clicks on the wood floor as I shift to a new position in my routine. I never take it off.

11-1-10 Sous chef rhapsody

She chops the veggies, stirs the cheese and the rice together. I open cans, suggest seasonings, wash the dishes and utensils as she finishes with them.

The kitchen is clean and well lit, warm and bustling as we make dinner. Once again, something I have dreamed of since I was a kid has come true, and the home I have always wanted is that much closer to being real.