WonL

The random thoughts of an architect-turned- lawyer from the deep south living in Washington, DC...

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Can you relate?

Relationships come in cycles with friends. It's always inevitable that not everyone in a group of gal friends gets into a happy blissful relationship at the same time. When the girls get together and everyone wants to talk about (read: whine about) boyfriends, the single gals just can't relate. It's not a bitter "damnit I am sick of hearing about your boyfriend because I don't have one" thing. It is more of a "well, I have nothing to add, can we change the subject?" thing. Those moments can be just plain boring if you are relationshipless and really can't participate in the conversation. Of course, the ante is upped with the ringing of wedding bells. Conversations then progress to annoying habits of husbands and (in the case of my weekend) "wifely duties."


I went to a bachelorette party weekend in Charleston this past weekend and I knew going in that I was going to be the only one not married, with the exception of the bride who is well on her way. (Yay Holly.) I was pretty much dreading a bunch of Southern gals sitting around talking about recipes or dishpan hands. Much to my surprise, this was not the topic of all conversations. For the most part, these married Southern gals were just normal ladies who liked to drink and play games and blow up inflatable "peter pecker" dolls. I felt like I was relating.


Somehow the breakfast conversation one day turned to husband habits. Damnit, I didn't see it coming! It's okay, Law-Rah, you can handle this. Do not feel left out, you have a man. You can still relate! The convo went something like this:


Southern Gal (SG) 1: Yeah, my husband has this really bad habit of leaving all his socks in the car and he wonders why he runs out. I tell him I am not washing his socks until he goes to the car and gets them for me.


SG 2: Well, my husband leaves wet towels on the bed and his wet gym clothes on the floor beside the hamper.


SG 3: Yeah, I told my husband that if he keeps leaving his laundry on the floor, I would throw it in the closet and walk on it.


SG 4: When my husband gets home from work, he leaves trails of his clothes all the way to the bathroom. They sometimes stay there for days.


Law-Rah: Once, when I spent the night at Ben's, he gave me a sweatsuit to wear and I placed my clothes in a pile on the floor. In the morning, after we drank our coffee, I went upstairs to get dressed and he had folded my clothes and laid them on the bed for me.


SG 1, 2, 3, 4: *looks of shock and disdain* (secretly revoking my membership to the Southern gals club)



(Um, yeah, I still can't relate.)