My Confession

I need to confess something to you.  I am sometimes annoying. Very annoying.  I do not know why I do some of the things I do.  But I am finding they can get me in trouble with my wife.  Here is one instance of something recent.  I have this little habit of flipping switches on and off, on and off, on and off. When i see buttons, i want to push and play. Just something in me drives me to do it.  My wife does not like it when I do that.  When we ride in the car i want to hit the window button up and down, up and down, up and down. She does not like it for a variety of reasons we do not need to get into right now.  So lets sum up where we are at so we are on the same page. Since this is the set up to what really happened.

Chris has annoying habits of flipping things on and off = Wife does not like

So, on with the story.  There is a light switch in our house that does not work.  Her father Bud has fixed it before but it was not working again.  I knew it, And I also know I am not very good at mechanical things especially electrical things.  But I wanted to give it a try, you know being the "man of the house" Because, is that not what the men do, fix things. So, I went down flipped off the electricity (Have to give me credit for knowing that much) And Went up stairs took the plate where the problem was and looked touched some wires and thought to myself "Yup looks good to me-whoever did this obviously did a good and correct job. OBVIOUSLY." I then closed it up. Went downstairs flipped the electricity back on.  As i passed the place where the problem was i hit the switch. And guess what happened? THEY CAME ON! I internally celebrated at my amazing electrical prowess. But than i thought to myself.  "I really didn't do anything...I moved wires. that was it." Then I thought maybe Kari's father came over and got to it. Because there was no way I really did that. I decided to own it anyway.  I decided to be excited because maybe i touched a loose wire.  Who knows. Maybe i missed my calling in life to be an electrician.

Later that evening when Kari was home she was doing the dishes and I said with much pride "Look at what I did" flipping the light on and off, on and off, on and off..  The thing was this time was not out of habit or annoyance but out of excitement wanting to be congratulated for my amazing husband work. And I went ignored.  She barely even looked up from the dishes.  My manmotions (You know the emotions of a man) were very hurt. Where was my "OH HONEY! You are my electrical dream boat!" As she ran towards me for a kiss.  Nothing. So, on off, on off, on off went the light again to showcase my work." STOP THAT!" Kari said. Hmmmm, well that is not at all what I expected to hear. Not at all.

After Kari and I discussed things I found out she thought I was doing my annoying act, and I thought she just did not care.  But none of that was being communicated. I am thankful we had the opportunity to discuss openly and honestly about the situation.  This could have been one of those things that could have gone by with both of us feeling upset.  This is why I am convinced discussion and communication are so important in our relationship.  Also, not holding someones habits as a marker for why they are doing something.  I am glad we worked through this, and I hope we both learned from this situation as well.  I know I did.  I know I have to be careful of my annoying little habits so they are not misjudged in other circumstances.