when in need of blogging material, call hubby

From time to time, I read these magazine articles about how to keep romance alive in your marriage primarily because their suggestions amuse me. Suggestions like "cook a romantic dinner for your husband" make no sense to me because "cook" and "romance" belong nowhere near each other - certainly not in the same sentence. They also suggest things like "call your sweetie throughout the day to let them know you are thinking about them." This has blown up in my face, multiple times. These little advice columns should come with warning labels or disclaimers of some kind before innocent newlyweds (like I once was) rely on their expert opinions.

I tried the call-your-spouse suggestion early in our marriage. I heard stories about other women who did this and they had success so I snapped up the phone and punched in the 7 necessary digits which connected me to my better half.

J - Hello!
B - Hi.
J - How are you?
B - Fine. Do you need something?
J - No. I was just calling to say hi.
B - Hi.
J - Okay then...
B - I’ll talk to you later. Click

After a few years of similar repartee, I learned my lesson. I eventually figured out that my hubby wanted as few interruptions in his day as possible so that he could rush home to me each night. That MUST be it!

Today I threw caution to the wind. I called hubby and rattled through the normal meaningless conversation. I threw a few tidbits in there about how tired I was and how my head was swimming in allergy drippiness. With minimal response from the other end of the phone I knew it was time to wrap up this scintillating conversation and let him get back to the business of getting home to me. And then he blurts out this phrase that nearly made me drop the receiver.

"Thanks for calling."

Whaaaaat? Did he just say that? Did he just express gratitude for my less than impressive communication? Did he just thank me for interrupting his day when he had a lot better things to do than listen to my nasal voice talk about stuff he never needed to know?

Just like that, three little words, and I am a puddle of goo.