LADY LOVE'S MAILBOX

When I left the gift shop (which I called "the Land of Cute") in Colorado and headed to Michigan to make my life with Lady Love I knew I would need to find another job. I found the my creativity to write must be constantly stirred by the interaction of people.
I needed what I called a "throw away job"; one that would stimulate me and yet flexible enough that I could go to Colorado in June to Jeff and Patti's wedding and go to the Michigan Women's Music Festival in August. I easily found a job and told them what time I needed off for these important things. The job turned out to be laying out a new Gift Shop. Go figure. They hired me and gave me a poor salary but great benefits---they seem to know what the old queer was looking for. There is something about me living in the "Land of Cute".

So here I am again in the work-a-day,8 to 5 world. It requires me to rise about 6 a.m.(Lady Love could sleep until 8 but of course she hears my blaring alarm and growls as it buzzes.)
Lady Love is not a morning person. I find her sleepy grumpiness quite delightful ; by her third cup of coffee she is finding her way and starting to look at the light of day. However we have had a week to end all weeks in the sleep department. We have critters living in our attic.

Flying squirrels . They are nocturnal. At night,they run, skip, square dance and chew until the mornings light. We have tried all of the remedies people have given us and yet each night we continue to have more noise. I think perhaps they have even invited friends over to party.

After 5 days and very little sleep Lady Love took drastic measures. Someone told her to make an escape route for them, then put a light bulb there and they would come out drop to the ground and yeah they would be gone. Saturday night it seemed to work and we did have our first full nights sleep with very little noise. Sunday morning we were cheered and thought at last we had won the critter war. WRONG! They had just taken the week-end off.

Monday morning Lady Love was in rare form. She told me.: "Not only did they run and chew all night but you slept right thru it and when they left to go outside---YOU SNORED!!!! I have had about two hours sleep all night long!!"

Well, of course I was very sorry that I had a wonderful nights sleep and she had an awful one. I found it very hard to apologize for sleeping well. Lady Love had 1/2 cup of coffee and rolled right back into bed. I continued to moved thru my morning taking her grumpiness and allowing it to fester into a pissiness of my own.

I decided I had better let her sleep or it would really upset her if I kissed her "goodbye" and she woke up. I hated not kissing her goodbye--after all we are newlyweds but I weighed that against this particular days early morning grumpiness.

Our five sleepless night had taken a toll on both of our ordinarily cheerful dispositions. I wasn't up for that this morning so I quietly slipped out the door still feeling pretty "pissy"myself. I marched resolutely out the door,jumped in my van, started the engine, spun the steering wheel around and promptly backed into what I thought was a rock. I looked in my rear view mirror and saw our mailbox uprooted and hanging there like a child's loose tooth. "Oh NO", I thought.

This is the mailbox that Lady Love had so proudly planted in concrete herself,decorated and then lovingly put our names on there together. I felt terrible but it was late and I needed to get to work ; I would fix it when I got home.
I worked hard at the store but nothing would relieve how awful I felt about not kissing Lady Love "goodbye" and then how stupid it was to let grumpiness boil over into backing into the mailbox. I spent a miserable morning. Someone paged me to the telephone, I answered with my usual brisk "This is Jean!"
Lady Love was on the line with,"Hi Sweetheart,how are you?" My heart melted as I heard her soft voice.
"I'm awful,--you saw I ran over the mailbox and I have been feeling miserable all morning. I'm sorry and I'll fix it tonight. I know how hard you worked on it."
She reassured me with her sweet gentle voice, "Stop worrying about it--there is so much that is right about us that in the grand scheme of things I don't want you thinking about the mailbox but I did feel bad you didn't kiss me goodbye."
"Me,too--I think I was thinking about that when I backed into the mailbox." Her expression of love made my day so much better.
When I came home that evening I pulled the van up to the mailbox and nudged it gently back into place. A neighbor going by in his pick-up truck almost lost control of his vehicle as he watched me making this simple repair.
Lady Love and I live a very busy life and some times our days are filled with us coming and going and irregular schedules, notes left on tables with lists and declaring our love. The day of the mailbox episode I found a new note on my "Honey Do" list and it read : "Always wake Lady Love and kiss her goodbye."
I will.