Monday, February 20, 2006

In a Bucket

Well, the good feelings didn't last very long. Although I had made a reminder to myself to watch out (PMS time), I simply forgot.

There we were, Wife and me, driving to the movies to see Pink Panther. She was happily singing a song on the radio. After the song was over, she turned to me and asked me what I thought of her singing. Being the flippant person that I am, I said, "You sounded good even with a bucket." I was, obviously to me, referencing the idiom "can't carry a tune in a bucket." I thought my pithy comment was made in jest. Apparently, I was wrong. I got a three hour third degree.

A little background info might help. Wife is from another country and came to the US, when she was six. She did not have a lot of outside friends and worked in the family business after school from sixth grade to college. English was a second language. Although she has no accent from her native country (Hong Kong), she often times misses the meanings of idioms that I take for granted. There are a lot times that I use these phrases, and she will swear I made them up. I'm not that bright.

Since Wife had never heard the phrase: "can't carry a tune in a bucket," she had no idea what my phrase "can carry a tune even with a bucket" meant. To me the idiom is self-explanatory. No, we had to debate what it is that buckets do. I apologized for using my comment. I made the mistake of saying that she was being purposefully obtuse. As I pulled up to the theatre, I finally explained the phrase "can't carry a tune in a bucket." I apologized for my actions and went to see a mediocre movie.

Back at home, I can tell Wife is still pissed. We were watching one of her favorite TV shows, and I asked her if she was ok and would she like to talk about it. She said that it would make her cry to talk about it. Ok, fine.

Later, in bed she decides it would be a good time to talk about it. Of course, she doesn't have to get her ass out of bed before 11:00, so staying up and arguing is no biggie. It boiled down to me not being considerate of her upbringing and being cold hearted (I did not apologize during the conversation...I had apologized three times, at least, before). She was crying, upset, etc. I guess I am a little cold-hearted, because I thought she made a spectacle of herself. I mean a little bit irritated, sure, but to allow herself to be this emotional is insane.

Also, to top it off, the cleaning lady comes tomorrow, so instead of getting her lazy ass out of bed and straightening the house, she decides to lay in bed, drink coffee, and watch TV. Now, she is running the kids around on their activities, the house is a ruinous wreck, and I'm just sick and tired.

1 comment:

So Gone Over You said...

I mean, if I thought My Boyfriend said something harsh to me because I didn't understand what he said, I might be upset. But to go and add in all these other things (not being sensitive to her upbringing, etc.) is just kind of crazy.