unbelievable

T just got back from walking the dog. i'm sitting here trying to figure out how to start a story about a nice little moment earlier tonight, when he totally breaks my train of thought by standing in the doorway with an *enormous* reading lamp.

me: "where did you get that?"
him (breathless): "in the trash!!"
me: "does it work?"
him: "i don't know. it has light bulbs in it and everything."
me: "well, plug it in!"

he has since gone to our bedroom and i am listening to him clicking the lamp on and off and on and off and on and off and muttering to himself with each click: "unbelievable."

guess we got a new lamp. i wonder what we're gonna do with the old one. which, come to think of it, i rescued from a curb when i lived in Durham.

and to think, we're still arguing over whether or not to register for things like a working toaster over or nice place settings.

*

what i was going to say before i was interrupted by the exceedingly talented dumpster diver is that T paid me a really lovely compliment earlier. and i'll admit, i asked him for one. we were stretched out on the floor playing boggle as part of our recent effort to spend one hour a night together (dinner and DVDs don't count). one of us was brushing the dog, the other pinning him against the couch so he couldn't get away. i said to T, "tell me something you like about me," and he immediately responded, "you're sexy, smart and beautiful."

"tell me something you can't also say about some hot woman on t.v.," i insist.

"you're good at the whole law school thing," he said. i really had no idea why he would care how well i do at school, so i asked him what he meant. he told me he meant i was good at balancing going to school with the rest of life, and not getting completely stressed out all the time. "i mean look at this," he said, as i stretched out on the carpet with the dog plopped on my belly. "you aren't freaking out right now."

i weakly reminded him that the rest of the day, when i'm not at home at dinner or in the early evening, i AM stressing. but really, that's beside the point. and it's also beside the point, but kind of humorous, that the standard for good school-life balance right now is whether or not i'm freaking out while i lay on the floor of our living room.

it's nice to know that i have a little home and a big life and an identity that has not been totally consumed by law school or our decision to come here. even better, it's nice that i get to share all of those things with T and that he recognizes them as something to love about me. in those little moments with him, law school is such a side note.