Love Is A Battlefield

There's an episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond" where Ray and Deborah come back from vacation and leave a suitcase on the landing. 

There's a battle of wills for 3 weeks and it finally comes to a head when Ray has to travel again and takes his clothes in plastic grocery bags rather than move the suitcase.  Before he leaves he puts stinky cheese in it so that his wife will be forced to move it while he's gone.

For some reason, I LOVE this episode.  I think it so simply sums up the small battles that you go through as a married couple.  The arguments are simple, she thinks he should carry it in because she was the one who packed and will have to unpack it and do the laundry.  He thinks she should do it since she walks by it every day and he lugged it around while they were away.

The mother in law on the show takes the daughter in law to her house and shows her that there's a big fork and spoon hanging on her wall that is the result of a similar fight and then she says the words I love...

"Don't let a suitcase full of cheese be your big fork and spoon."

I think of this all the time when I find myself in a similar situation.  There are certain things that I totally think should be my husbands job, like car stuff and trash.  Then there are things that he thinks I should take care of, like everything else.  Ha ha ha. I'm kidding. Sort of.  I do take care of a lot of other stuff, but he helps out and pitches in when I need him to.

Our "big fork and spoon" is the trash.  I swear my family could win a trash stacking contest.  No one seems to be able to take the trash bag out.  They will stack and stuff it until it can take no more.  The only time my husband takes the bag out of the kitchen trash is on Friday, which is garbage day. 

What happens next makes me crazy.  Instead of putting a new bag in the trash can.  He takes a plastic grocery bag out and hangs it on my oven handle.  I don't get it!!  I will admit, the way our trash can is, you have to place the bag around a plastic ring and then put it in the trash can, then put on the lid.  The trash bags are literally a step away.  The grocery bags are at least 10 steps away and then you have to walk back to hang it on the oven.

It makes me crazy on a weekly basis, but instead of being stubborn and making this a bigger deal than it needs to be (you know , like dedicating a whole blog to it) I have accepted that on Friday mornings I will come downstairs to see this......

 and this.....