Milestones

At the one-month mark of marriage, here's what I've learned:

• In spite of my general laziness, I *can* cook. Who knew?
• I'm actually quite good at the whole homemaking thing. I clean, I wash, I vacuum, I plan. I thought I'd dislike it, but it's actually not bad.
• As I figured when I worked in DC for a semester - all desire to be productive ceases around 4-5pm. This is why I spend every evening watching Napoleonic Era military dramas with my husband.
• I need to be around people. Sitting in the house all day to clean and write my dissertation does strain my sanity sometimes. Even if I don't talk to other people (at the gym) I need to be around them to stop feeling like I Am Legend.
• Left to my own devices I *will* sleep for far too long, making me more tired than if I'd just dragged myself out of bed to go running with Sebastian.
• I get annoyed when people who send me business emails call me "Ms." and not "Mrs." It's like a PhD; if I earned it and put in the work for it, I want to be called "Dr."!
• Leaving wet clothes in the washer/dryer and expecting the dryer function to kick in is silly. The clothes will still be *very* damp, and not even warm 2 hours later.
• Just because you're married and both know how to cook does not mean that older married couples won't assume that you need to be fed. Especially if they're at least as old as your parents. No: to them, the pair of you together are still as helpless as you were on your own in your first years of college. You need good home cooking at every available opportunity. (Never mind that you've started to master that whole "home cooking" thing on your own...)
• When you roll around fitfully in your sleep, there *is* someone else in the bed for you to hit. They do not take kindly to being woken up in this way...especially if you're still asleep and wrestling with the duvet.
• Just because you're married, doesn't mean you should stop going on dates. Date frequently...if only to get out of the house and remember that there is more in your life now than loading the dishwasher before bed.