Hooptedoodle

I realized something today at work. I am the only person out of about 19 people that has no one to go home to. One of the girls is at a convention, and my boss was staying until 5:30 to cover her shift. I offered to stay late, since she has two kids, but she said she didn't mind. I told her I didn't have anyone waiting for me at home, but she said I always offered because of that, which is true. Then, I started thinking about it and realized that all of the people I work with either have boyfriends, husbands, kids or a combination that they live with (only not a boyfriend AND a husband!). I am the only person at the company that lives alone.

I started to think about the situation and if it made me happy or sad. On the one hand, I love coming home to peace and quiet after a long day. I like being able to relax and just veg out for a little while. On the other hand, I think it would be really nice to have someone around (other than the cat). Someone to talk to, cook for, eat dinner with, go to bed with at night, etc.

However, I think the idea of living with someone is scary for two reasons. Number one, when you see someone occasionally, you can be on your best behavior. But, when you live with someone, all of the weird little quirks come out. There is no hiding stuff, like the fact that I use my hair straightener to iron the wrinkles out of my button up shirts and talk about myself in the third person to the cat. So, if that isn't bad enough, moving on to number two, what if the person you are living with gets sick of you, or vice versa? It's all a very intimidating process, which probably explains why I have lived alone for so long.

I feel like at my age I should know exactly what I want, but I don't. Sometimes, I think I do want to get married and have a family and other times, particularly when I see a child acting up in a store, I thank God for birth control. A lot of my friends married the first guy they were in a serious relationship with. I think that's a bad idea. How can you know if you are getting the best deal if you don't shop around? I am not condoning having relations with a variety of different people, but I think casual dating is good thing. This way, you can narrow down what you do and don't want and what you will and won't put up with. It's like interviewing for a variety of jobs, seeing what they offer for compensation, medical insurance, 401k, etc. then choosing the one you want. Only, it's shopping for men.

I have a friend who got married because she and her boyfriend decided it was "the next logical step". I still don't understand how you could decide something like that while waiting in line for pizza. What's the fun in that? I guess underneath it all, I'm a sucker for romance. Even though I think it can be a little corny, I am all about proposals on bended knee, candlelight dinners, a dozen roses, etc. Embarrassing and so cliche, but true. Perhaps this is why my favorite book is Sweet Thursday.

Back to the subject of marriage, I am actually going to quote James Dobson here, because he had the best advice I've ever heard, which is this: "Don't marry the person you can live with, marry the person you can't live without."

And with that piece of wisdom, it is time for bed. It's late, I'm tired, I'm rambling and I don't think anyone will read past the second paragraph of this monstrosity.