Domestically Inclined

My life has undergone a dramatic shift in recent weeks...  And no, I'm not just talking about moving, and starting a new job.  I'm talking about a less visceral, sneak up on you kind of priority shift.  I think my new job has allowed me to evaluate my life and make some different decisions about what I value, and what will be the most fulfilling way for me to live my life.  That has meant that I have, almost unknowingly, packaged myself in a different way at work, so that people know that, while I am dedicated to the job and the team that I work for, I am not going to be the kind of person who sacrifices every other aspect of her life for the job, all the time.  I have lived the other way for long enough to know that there is no path for happiness in it. 

So I am working less, and worrying about work less, than I have, ever, in my adult life.  And that's a big statement.  See, that, I think, is really the crux of it.  I am making these decisions as an adult.  I am still the over-ambitious, incredibly enthusiastic person I always was, but I have matured.  My decision make process and motivation have a different focus now.  I am building a life, and a family, and it doesn't have to be all about my career accomplishments anymore. 

Its an interesting way to look at it, and it may sound a little archaic, but I really think that living apart for most of the first year of our engagement has allowed Adolfo and I to look at our relationship in a different way, now that we are living in the same place again.  It feels like we are an adult couple now, not just a young couple playing house, which is the way I felt when we were first living together.  Maybe that's not a good way to describe it, because that makes us sound old and stodgy...  We haven't, I don't think, changed as people, we are just more of a team in life.

A part of this shift in me has appeared, outwardly, in the way I spend my free time.  Where I used to be the type that did little to nothing of the housework for as long as we could stand it, and then had a marathon cleaning session that lasted for all of a weekend afternoon, I am now the type who keeps things picked up most of the time.  Part of it, I'm sure, is the newness of this apartment, and the fact that we just moved in a month ago, but its become something of a priority for me.  What a strange statement to make, right? 

And I'm cooking most every night.  That is something I have really missed, because its hard to find the motivation to make a really nice meal for just one person.  I made homemade meatballs the other night, because Adolfo asked for comfort food.  And I made a pot roast!!  And then, THEN! I turned it into beef stroganoff to use up the leftovers!  How crazy is that?  Adolfo, of course, LOVES this turn of events, because he's no longer eating bachelor food, so its making out little home a very nice place to be.  :)

I find it funny, because if you had asked me five years ago, hell, even one year ago, if I would ever be this person, I would have laughed at you.  I never expected to be this way.  I think I resisted it, because of the feminist in me.  But you know what, I am starting to believe that you really can have it all.  At least until you have kids.  Then, we'll see.  In the meantime, I am enjoying my new way of living, and the place that I live.  And while I have a long way to go to get to my grandmother's "A place for everything, and everything in its place", at least you can come visit any time you want, because I will no longer suffer from Pre-Company Syndrome, a term my mother created for that manic cleaning spree one goes on in the hours before a guest arrives.