Break room chit chat....

In offices everywhere, there are men and woman that gossip in break rooms.  Office politics, big or small, keep things interesting and just when you think you've graduated from junior high and all the drama that comes with it....get back to your cubicle and guess again.  However, there are those co-workers who will brighten your day and make it....a little (and only a little) fun to come to work.   Sometimes, given a steaming cup of delicious coffee and quirky co-workers in the right mood, I can actually enjoy some days in the office.

In all my years working in my office, I have never looked forward to "gossiping" in the break room.  It's just happened.  Inevitable I guess.  It happens too much sometimes, but on this particular Wednesday afternoon....not only did I enjoy the break room chit chat.....It actually helped bring me a little peace in this crazy whirlwind of a life I've been living as of late.  

I love my husband, I really do, but sometimes I get sick of babysitting him.  He's a grown 34 year old, completely competent and capable man.  So, you can understand my frustration when I find myself sometimes screaming at him because he forgot to take his pills (which is a huge deal in his case), or that while I'm at work and he's doing nothing at home and I still have to make all the calls to doctors for him.  I have to pay and organize all the bills.  I have to schedule his blood labs online.  I have to call the yard guy and the bug guy.  I have to battle with the bank and the insurance company.  I have to do the grocery shopping and plan for dinners throughout the week.  I basically have to conquer the world on my hour lunch.  I blame myself for salting his food and delivering him his sweet tea as he watches The Big Bang Theory and doesn't lift a finger.  To be honest...I really don't mind doing everything, but it gets frustrating at times.  I'm more of a go-getter than he is and lets face it...if I didn't do it, it wouldn't get done.  But, I have been a little depressed about it.  I don't want to feel like I'm in a relationship with a husband who needs to be babysat.  Don't we all just want to be taken care of and rescued sometimes?

I  hate to compare my life to others, but I really thought I was alone in this.....until that eye-opening Wednesday afternoon in the break room.  I was on my way to get some much needed afternoon coffee when I heard chatter getting louder and louder.  It wasn't angry and it wasn't pleasant.  It was more like venting.  When I reached the site of the chatter, I found 2 of my co-workers in the break room griping about their husbands.  These two co-workers are the 2 oldest employees in my department and have been with the company the longest.  I am close with both of them, and know both of their husbands very well.  They are both pretty high class ladies with fancy cars, beautiful houses and big bank accounts.  Both of their husbands work and have been married to them for 20 plus years.  

What I heard should have made me dive right in and join them in their vent session....but all I could do was smile and explain my peculiar relief.  For their privacy, I'm going to call them by fake names.  So, lets call them Laverne and Shirley.  Laverne's husband had the week off of work.  He just stayed home and took some time to himself.  Laverne went on and on about several things that she had to do on her lunch hour and after work and that he could have easily done himself.  He calls her if his checkbook doesn't balance, he calls her to kill spiders, he calls her to ask directions and....yes, she makes his doctor's appointments and picks up his vitamins at the drug store.  She packs his lunch, presses his ties and loves him with all of her heart.  

Shirley said something that will stay with me forever....Her addition to the husband rant...was that he is so stubborn and won't go to the doctor.  After weeks of nagging him to go and get checked, he agreed.  "But do you think he can make his own appointment?" she griped.  Nope!  She said she had to make the appointment, then go on her lunch hour and fill out his pre-patient paper work AND pay the co-pay, so all he would have to do is walk in and be seen.  It was music to my ears!!!  It's not my marriage falling apart, it's not just me raising a man child.........it's not just me who's babysitting a grown man!!  I had a life-changing 10 minutes that Wednesday....regardless of the fact that I had 3 more hours in the work day and was only in the "hump" of a slow moving work week.  The break room held my steaming cup of coffee and a little piece of mind that day.

With all of that said....my husband is very lovable.  He does things for me that make me count myself as lucky.  I don't know many woman who come home to all of their laundry done, folded and put away.  If I see a tiny gnat, or a huge spider....no matter what time it is....he is there within seconds to kill it.  He takes out the trash and brings me my water every night.  I may be able to recite all of his 30 medications and dosages and his lengthy medical history to anyone who asks...while he barely knows the day of the week.....but then again...I wouldn't call myself all that easy going or low maintenance.  We're a good pair.