Most days my husband and I are OK stuck at home together, 24\/7. We started isolating ourselves on March 17, just two days before California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued stay-at-home orders. <\/p>\n
Don and I get along, although we approach things differently. I\u2019m a worrier; he subscribes to the Alfred E. Neuman philosophy, \u201cWhat, me worry?\u201d He takes risks; I don\u2019t. I indulge in retail therapy while he orders his shoes online from L.L. Bean and finds clothes at Costco and Kohl\u2019s. I enjoy getting out occasionally with friends. He\u2019s more comfortable staying home, although I can entice him out with the promise of lunch at a restaurant.<\/p>\n
Temperamentally, we balance each other. He talks me down from the emotional ledge when I get upset. I prompt him to accomplish things, like making doctor appointments or filing our income tax return before April 15. Both of us are smart\/nerds, and we appreciate language (we each had Oxford dictionaries of English etymology).<\/p>\n
We make each other laugh. When we were dating, we told my teenaged son about a bumper sticker we had seen. My son didn\u2019t find it as amusing as we did, and I said that Don and I had the same sense of humor.<\/p>\n
\u201cGreat,\u201d George replied. \u201cTwo moms.\u201d<\/p>\n
That humor carries us through these long days of isolation. We find ways to amuse ourselves and each other. A friend brought him a sourdough starter, and I found it engaging to watch the bubbles \u201cburp\u201d in the dough as it rose. We can tell when mail or delivery trucks approach. I observed a hummingbird stirring in the rosemary bush out back. Don spotted a cricket in my studio, which is a pretty good place to hide because the room is a creative mess. Every night, I listened to the cricket as it moved around the house. I\u2019ve heard that crickets are lucky and I hoped that\u2019s true.*<\/p>\n
We do sometimes get on each other\u2019s last nerve, however. Especially in the kitchen, where my role usually is to assist while he cooks. I set the table and stage items he will need.<\/p>\n
On Sundays, we usually fix eggs with toast or English muffins (he adds sausage to his order). One Sunday, we deviated from our routine and made fried egg sandwiches. I had set a sharp knife next to our plates on the counter.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t need a knife,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cUh, yes, for cutting your sausage and the sandwich,\u201d I replied.<\/p>\n
\u201cI meant for butter.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know but I may need it if you keep annoying me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGet a bigger knife,\u201d he quipped.<\/p>\n
All things considered, we\u2019re coexisting well in captivity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no one I\u2019d rather be stuck on a desert island with,\u201d my loving husband told me the other day.<\/p>\n
Unless I bring a knife.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
*unfortunately, the unlucky cricket met an untimely death<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.26.7″ hover_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kaleidoscope"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykoladascott.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykoladascott.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykoladascott.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykoladascott.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykoladascott.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/marykoladascott.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":473,"href":"https:\/\/marykoladascott.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions\/473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykoladascott.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykoladascott.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykoladascott.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}