Day 2 : Moment #Advent #NPCAdvent2015

Today’s Prompt: Write about one ordinary moment that happened yesterday.

NPCADVENT2015TMS

I looked up from my computer when Elias came into the room.

“I found your other shoe,” he said.”It was in the shoe basket.”

“Makes sense.”

“I’ll put it here, with the other one by the front door, so you’ll have them in the morning.”

I can’t think of a more ordinary moment in my day, but I also can’t think of one that captures so much about me and about Elias.

I never know where my stuff is, and I don’t have a system for where to put anything. (Well, for some things I do have a system, but it’s hard for me to follow the system. That’s for another day.) I have lots of coping mechanisms for this weird trait: Papers that I actually need to hold on to get scanned –immediately — before they are lost forever. I write notes down, but then take pictures of the notes so I can throw them away. I sign up for paperless everything. It takes about 4 months into a friendship with me before my friends realize that I’ll be leaving something at their house every time I come to visit. Not a gift, mind you, just something I forgot.

I don’t even consider buying quality sunglasses. I just go to the dollar store a couple times a year and buy four or five pairs. I leave them scattered around friends’ houses and cars and various places around the country. If you find a pair, lucky you.

When Clayton was about 2 years old I said “Ok, time to go to the store!” and he started looking around the living room saying “Find the keys! Find the keys!” He knew, at just two years old, that after I said “Time to go!” the next thing would be “Find the keys!”

It must be the opposites attract thing, because the person I married has a system for all of his possessions and a very strict sense of order about where things belong. Just today he told me that he organized the leftovers in the refrigerator according to whether or not they were sweet or savory. (FYI, the sweet potato casserole was on the “sweet” shelf, along with pies and arroz con leche. I would have put it with the mashed potatoes and turkey, but hey… not my system.)

Elias gets super frustrated with my lack of order when it comes to possessions, and I don’t blame him. Sometimes he goes a little bonkers when cupboard doors are left open or there’s a random shoe under the covers of our bed. Even so, he’s starting to learn (after seven short years of marriage) that I’m not likely to change all that much. Sure, I’ll keep creating better coping mechanisms, but I think there’s something in my genetic code that makes me leave a trail of sunglasses and papers and keys behind me like breadcrumbs.

So  now, seven years in, instead of making a big deal out of every wayward thing, he mostly just keeps track of stuff. He finds my shoes and lovingly places them by the door so I’ll have them in the morning.

It’s not something I take for granted.

 

 

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