Married People

Let me start by saying that I have nothing against married people.

I just tend to suffer from over exposure to them and it can tend to leave one feeling rather lonely, not in the sense that you are alone and have no friends, but in the sense that you have no one in the world who considers you to be the most important person in their life, no one who sees you as that special, extraordinary.

Alright, so there is a certain two year old who believes that everything I do is magical and amazing. He has rejected his mother's peanut butter in favor of mine (a real coup for a little boy) and will only eat carrots cut the way I cut them and peanut butter sandwiches made the way I make them. He barely lets me leave the house without demanding that he give me another good bye kiss ~ and that's just when I'm going to work or run some errands. He loves it when I count the freckles across his cheeks and the bridge of his nose and he can never hear enough stories about all the people in the family that came before us. And, yes, he lights up when he sees me in the room. And if he were thirty years older and not related I would definitely consider marrying him. But as things stand, he's a little too temperamental for my taste. He's inherited my sister's predisposition for crankiness when either hungry or tired, and well, he's two!! And yes, I love him more than anything in the world. It's going to be tough competition when his younger sister or brother is born 5 months from now!!

But, back to being unmarried among the marrieds. It's a strange position to be in. It's not like being the only one without a car, since you could never actually borrow someone else's husband ~ well, maybe for manual labor... But, I think you'd have a hard time convincing someone to let you borrow their spouse for a wedding date or some other function that I get invited to bring a guest along.

Then there's the ugly traditional bullshit that every single person hates. Kissing at midnight on New Years Eve. Whoever came up with that idea should really be shot. I've made a point of not being awake at midnight on New Years Eve for the last few years just to avoid any confusion or disappointment. Come to think of it, that same person was probably responsible for Valentine's Day too. Shoot them twice, in that case. What are single people expected to do on Valentine's Day anyway? I believe I babysat and I may have gotten a card from my mother. Does it get more depressing than that? I suppose I should be congratulated for getting past my days of wearing all black on Valentine's Day. It was fun despite the fact that most people didn't even notice.

No, society is not created for single people, despite all the ready made meals for one available at Central Market, that's just a mirage. They really exist for married couples who can't agree on a prefab meal, truth be told. This is not to say that Whole Foods Cafe is a not a complete meet market after work ~ they also have a very lovely meat market at the butcher's department. But, I'm still trying to figure out how I got to be so much older than most of the players there. I could swear I was in my twenties just last week.....

Maybe that's the real truth. My twenties are a blur of higher education and my early thirties a period of career and resume building. I know I meant to get married and have kids at some point, but it was always a little further down the priority list. Oops! And here's the worst part ~ I'm really tired of meeting new people, I mean just exhausted. Sharing all your details and such is just draining. I've met enough people in my life anyway, haven't I? Maybe I could cross paths with the geologist I met on the Amtrak from Washington to Richmond a few years back? Or how about that great statistician from the Idaho tobacco program that I met at that CDC meeting? Or maybe someone from college or grad school? Even high school? I can be really cool about these things. Just keep it in mind for future reference, fate, karma, or whoever controls these things! I mean, I know I don't get to interfere, but I thought if you were in need of suggestions, since you're probably very busy.... Just take it under advisement. 'kay?