Thought of the day

In life there are things that we just don't think about, things that we simply do, like scooping peanut-butter out of the jar to make a sandwich or toweling off after a shower, the little things that make up everyday life. Like most people, I tend to assume that everyone does these things the same way; I mean, they are so simple and straight forward why would people do them differently? This thought process has led me to a series of shocking discoveries and driven home the fact that when dealing with people, you just can't make any assumptions!

First, let's look at peanut-butter. I have been pretty self-suficient since childhood and have made my own peanut-butter sandwiches for as long as I can remember. I always open a new jar and admire how smooth and pristine the top of the peanut-butter is before you start using it. When I start using it, I go down one side of the jar leaving the other side in pristine condition for as long as possible and then slowly take a bit at a time from the undisturbed side until I have just a small wedge of undisturbed top left at which point I finish it off. I just ASSUMED everyone did this... Now enters my wife, she grabs the fresh jar of peanut-butter grabs a butter knife and digs right in. Needless to say I'm shocked! She has no regard for the beauty of fresh smooth peanut-butter at all! I have no idea what my facial expression was but she saw the look on my face and asked "what's wrong, is everything ok, what did I do", to which I could only respond "nothing, I've just never seen someone else use peanut-butter before and that's not how I do it". After explaining my method to her we both decided that perhaps I'm just a bit weird.

Next, let's look at toweling off after bathing. Again, one of the things I ASSUMED everyone did the same way, i.e. just like me. When I finish showering I turn off the water, grab the towel, bring it to me inside the shower and proceed to dry off as much water as possible, starting with my head and working my way down to my feet, which I dry one of and place it outside the shower then dry the other and voila, I'm done! I'm as dry as possible and slightly pink from the vigor with which I have dried myself off. Here again, enters my wife. I'm in the bathroom, doing something, no idea what it was any longer but I was at the bathroom sink and my wife was finishing her shower. I hear the water turn off and think to myself that this would be a great opportunity to checkout my wife's naked, wet, glistening body! I never tire of checking her out! Being 6'6" I peek over the top of the shower curtain and what do I see? Yep, you got it, my naked, wet, glistening wife... however, she's doing a little shimmy shake dance in the shower. Perplexed, I continue to watch until she sees my head over the top of the shower curtain. She smiles up at me, slides open the shower curtain, hops out of the shower, grabs the towel, pats herself off a little, all the while tracking water around the bathroom and still looking pretty damp to me hangs the towel back up. Apparently, she shakes the water off before she gets out and then uses the towel sparingly, so she doesn't "get it too wet" which apparently I do with my method of drying off. After this conversation, I decide she's a bit weird but at least I now know how the bath mats get so wet!

It's the little things like making a peanut-butter sandwich or toweling off after a shower that make us the individuals we are and make the world we live in such a fascinating place! And yes, I still use peanut-butter the same way, we just buy a jar for each of us now so I can keep mine pretty for as long as possible!