ponderings

Last night Neil asked me "What are some qualities that you've discovered in me that you didn't know about when we were married that you would have married me for if you'd known about them?"

It took me a few minutes to figure out what he was saying, and then I made some off-handed remark, but we returned to the conversation later on that night while brushing our teeth (so it was punctuated with lots of gargling and other pleasant things).

But what I think Neil said (through a mouthful of toothpaste) in response to my turning the question back on him was that he really loved how I charge ahead and "get things done." To which I responded "I thought that drove you crazy!" and he replied, "Well, it does, but that's because I don't plan and do things like you and I'm lazy, so I like that you're not."

I reflected bemusedly over the fact that the man who's been known to study 16 hours solid thinks he's lazy, but was quite touched by the fact that he appreciates my love-notes-in-the-form-of-to-do-lists-mania. It was a pick-me-up that I definitely needed, since I have been feeling a little overwhelmed lately, but his comment gave me the motivation to charge ahead today and do the following (none of which I particularly wanted to do):

• get up at 5:45 to go to the gym
• return from the gym and make hot biscuits for breakfast
• grade papers for an hour before getting Abigail up
• be cheerful about Abigail's picky-eater-in-the-morning-ness
• go to campus and teach my class
• write commentary and critiques justifying grades for 8 oral presentations
• run errands for somebody else
• vacuum the house
• write thank-you notes
• return phone calls and emails (massive backlog from being on vacation)
• call and order new stroller wheels for the double stroller
• grade some more papers

And after I finish this post, I will go finish my grading for today (bringing the total up to 8 for today and 22 for the last 24 hours, meaning I have only 16 left to grade), clean the bathrooms, and dust. And hopefully it will be warm enough tonight for us to finally go to the local water park! (and then we can come home and pick beans and water all our plants. yippee skippee!)

So thank you, Neil, because when that alarm went off at 5:45 this morning it was your faith in me that got me out of bed. Honest. That's the only reason why I didn't turn it off and return to bed to reclaim my pillows, you pillow thief you.