Day 177: Everybody Loves Raymond and Me

So Claire and I have certainly posted on this before, but there is an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond that we love, and that Claire has added to our collective memory and always references it though I have never seen it. This is one of our more married moments; she starts talking about when we watched it together, though this never happened, and I end up talking as though it did because I basically know what she's going to say anyway. Raymond has become our Jung-ian archetype and is definitely part of the collective subconscious.

So in said episode, Raymond and the wife talk about how in marriage you gain essentially learned inadequacies. The wife never learns how to program the VCR becuase she then would have to actually do so. Raymond "can't" fold towels correctly though he is a perfectly competent adult man with opposable thumbs.

In my case, I am a twenty-four year old who never learned to make coffee. I never used to drink the stuff (though am now sadly dependent) and if I had learned to make it in my house of the truly coffee-addicted, I would have become a true slave as I was the sole person who could have made it without simultaneously threatening the supply. This is the most convenient un-learned behavior EVER. It's really the gift that keeps on giving as I consistently have it made for me.

So you get the idea behind our Raymond theory.

Today as I get ready to leave Bali, I realize how dependent I've become on Claire in some ways. Here is what I've had to do (gasp) on my own that I wouldn't normally.

1. Wake up and get up WITHOUT going back to sleep (Claire usually gets up and her pottering gets me out of bed)
2. Add links to the blog and fix HTML screw ups (granted ones that I had made, but still)
3. Set the alarm; I don't know how to, so Claire always does it. Big steps by moi.
4. Pack toiletries: Claire has millions, and always has space in the top of her bag so I never have to worry about fitting mine in among my crap.
5. Go running: Claire does it first, I think about it, then do it too. I copy her, essentially. She reminds me when it is a good idea before sitting on planes for two days.
6. Deal with our video editor; Claire has certainly been doing this from Paris, but as I happened to be online at the same time as him without her, I had to talk to him. About work-related topics. Words like "editing" "proposals" and "agents" were used. I felt overwhelmed.

In Paris, I can only guess what Claire is up to, but the fact that she is using our BEAUTIFUL new camera all by herself shows an insane amount of progress over the current situation in which the camera we've been using for 8 months continues to baffle her with its crazy on/off and playback buttons. Hopefully someone still tells her when her stupid pen is all over her face. But you never know...her family has a nutty sense of humor.

Ah, division of labor. How we love you.

Claire! Get your butt to Beijing so we can go back to doing what we do best. You know, listing millions of things we have to do, doing whichever interests each of us, and then finding out we've done exactly opposite tasks naturally.

I miss you, alarm setter, you.