The "Zowie" Factor

It was senior date night at the cinema last night. Couples of a certain age packed the theater to cluck at Hope Springs, a movie in which unhappy Meryl Streep drags repressed Tommy Lee Jones off to intensive couples counseling. Midway through the movie I leaned over and whispered to my date, “why doesn’t she just rearrange the furniture?”

We rearrange our marital furnishings about once a decade. I used to literally move the furniture around when my husband went on a business trip. I did it for effect. He never knew what he would come home to, so to save his shins from nasty bruising(“Ouch! You moved the table!”) he made sure not to go away too often or be gone too long.

Our most recent re-arrangement is a getaway in the desert. We’ve had a lot of fun establishing a home to fit priorities that are different from our normal daily life. This culminated in our choice of an area rug to define a grouping of comfy mission style furniture. It came down to a choice between this—

Choice #1

and this—

Choice #2

Conversation #1:

Me: Well, the colors are perfect.

He: And it fits the theme. The pillow will work.

Me: But, it’s kind of a cliché.

He: I was thinking that, too.

Conversation #2:

Me: Wow! Not what I would have picked but

He: Very different from what I thought we said we wanted but

Me: It has energy

He: It has emotion

Me: Yes! It makes me feel good!

He: Will your pillow work?

Me: No, but I don’t care. It’s...zowie.

When “zowie” is part of your mutual vocabulary, your chances of needing marital counseling diminishes.

Pillow for sale

How to set up a house in a week

System Requirements: Make sure you have a HEALTHY MARRIAGE before you attempt to set up a new house in one week. If you detect a problem in your connection, go to your Travel Agent and plan a nice vacation instead.

User Agreement:

1. We agree that it is a good idea to go to the desert in July while the country is in a heat wave and the desert dwellers have largely vacated to the Northwest.
2. We have learned from every mistake we ever made setting up houses in the past and are EAGER TO GET IT RIGHT this time.
3. We are ON THE SAME PAGE about why we bought this house and how we plan to use it.
4. We have determined this will be FUN for BOTH OF US.

Sancho--a housewarming gift from the kids

Surprisingly, we did set up our desert getaway in one week and it has been fun, except for the part where I got dehydrated, my Windows went into a blue screen funk from which it has not fully recovered, and a garage door repairman stood in the long line of people we are shelling money out to so we can get this thing done.