!The Married Life
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agk's phlog
7 May 2021 @ 1325
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written on Pinebook Pro
while the roommate's dog
barks scarily at the FedEx man
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A few people asked us "How's married life?" We've only
been married a week. We lived together more than a year.
It's hard to say.
The first day we entertained family and a few close
friends from out of town. We went to the spraypainted
cliffs on Burnt Ridge Road. In light rain, we enjoyed the
spectacular view and ever-changing graffiti. Always nice
to share that place with people who haven't seen it. My
nephew clambered.
Over the weekend we worked. Evy worked with a guy with
COPD. He was snoring whenever she entered his room but
insisted he never slept: "I was just watching the game."
I worked a dangerously understaffed hospital. I put a man
in a restraint hold moments before the pen in his raised
hand would have been stabbed into another patient.
After resting this week, we took out compost and recycling
(the former is usually my job and the latter hers), did
laundry, and dug a new garden bed. She enjoyed sawing a
plank, breaking up clay with the grubbing hoe and garden
rake, knocking in the stakes. Gardening is good to do when
pregnant. We planted mint and bee balm.
On a walk to the grocery, we saw a friend from college
in bad shape. She was walking fast, lips cracked, leaving
a bad boyfriend (who was afoot a few blocks behind her)
with nowhere good to go. It's suicide season, and she
seemed bad -- like manic or psychotic bad. Evy invited
her for dinner.
The old friend eventually came by. We fed her and got her
settled on the couch. She drank a pot of tea I brewed from
nettles, lemon balm, and catnip. She called the police and
struggled with what had just happened. When she couldn't
sleep I did ear acupuncture. In the morning we ate break-
fast with her, packed her a care bag, and filled her tank.
She headed off to a city.
Today we walked to the creek and commented on the clouds.
Evy's asleep. She switches her sleep schedule for night
shift. This afternoon I'll take a friend's seven year old
to the creek to hunt agates and fossils for his birthday,
then drop by a neighbor's backyard bonfire before bed.
Married life is good so far. We vowed never to forsake
all others, and to love, honor, comfort, and keep each
other. The rings feel good. Spring foliage is dense and
lush. We like our roommates. Our little paychecks pay the
bills. There are plastic chairs outside to sit on and sip
seltzer water together at dusk.
