The Morning News

It takes me awhile to wake up in the morning. I don't like to talk and I refuse to engage. Bill, on the other hand,  is immediately engaged with the world upon waking. He gets out of bed as soon as the alarm goes off - he does not moan and languish in the warm sheets. He bolts out of bed and goes to get the newspaper. By the time he's finished Section A I'm just pushing back the covers and looking for my slippers.

We tend to get ready in the bathroom together. It's a small bathroom but we've divvied up the space quite well: I get 2/3 and he gets 1/3.

We both relented and bought a wee television for the bathroom counter so we could catch the news in the a.m. As I said, I don't want to engage, but I can listen passively to the news. I'm hooked on the Today Show; I've been watching it for years. Bill tolerates the Today Show - he hates the screaming masses that wait in the plaza for the 2 seconds of face time and he thinks they spend too much time on fluff stories. He will physically leave the bathroom if Lindsay Lohan's name is mentioned. But, he never asks me to turn it off. He does, however, turn to MSNBC the moment I leave the bathroom to get dressed.

If Bill had his druthers he would give me a blow by blow of his day during those bathroom encounters. But, he knows I just don't care at the time of the day. So, he keeps quiet. Sometimes, I can see him assessing my mood out of the corner of my eye and he'll ask "can I talk?". At that point I usually realize the witch that I have become and I relent.

But every morning, before I leave for work he tells me that I look good, or that he thinks I've lost the weight from Christmas, or that my butt looks good in those pants - something uplifting. So, I always leave the house with a positive attitude - at least about my outward appearance.

And, I thank God that I'm not Lindsay Lohan.