What's your problem?

Have you ever been combative with your husband or boyfriend for no reason? I'm talking about starting arguments while thinking that it's ridiculous, but still not being able to stop...has this happened to you? It happened to me yesterday...here's the story...

I am not Susie Homemaker, as I have stated on here before. I mean, I do what I can (or what I feel like doing), but my apartment is definitely not in ship-shape all the time. (Please give me fair warning before you come visit, okay?!) My hubby can be somewhat of a neat freak, so this drives him insane.

I have lots of excuses for my lack of productivity. "Little Man was grumpy all day!" "Little Man undid everything I did!" "Little Man wasn't feeling good and wanted me to hold him!" "Why don't YOU try to be productive with a 19 month old under your feet all day!" "By the time you get home at night all I want to do is relax!" Do you see a theme here? It's the boy's fault! My apartment is not spic-n-span because of Little Man. At what age does he learn to clean?

Yesterday I was in one of those rare moods where I actually wanted to clean. So, I did. I hung up and folded every piece of clothing. I washed every dish. I mopped the kitchen floor. I sorted the mail. I vaccuumed. I put toys away. I had dinner on the table, sour cream and cheese on the potato, water in the glass, when he walked in the door. This never happens, people. I was so proud of myself and ready for all the appreciation that was sure to come my way.

Enter hubby. Hubby sees box that arrived that holds his oh so precious new video game. Hubby picks up the box. Hubby says hey to me and Little Man and absent-mindedly says, "It smells good in here." Hubby proceeds to open the box. The anger starts boiling deep inside me, and before I know it, I am saying, "Put that box down and come eat. You know what it is and it can wait until after dinner." "But, Ashley, I just want to open it. Look how big this box is just for this little video game." "I don't care...come eat!" Of course he doesn't. He finishes messing with the box and pulls the freaking video game out and sets it on the table so he can read the back during dinner.

Except I don't let him read the back. Oh, no. I am furious. I worked hard all day and wanted some recognition for it dadgum it!

This is how the "conversation" went:

Me: "You don't even care that I have worked hard today to clean up!"
Him: "I haven't even been here for more than 3 minutes!"
Me: "But you didn't even say anything about dinner being on the table ready for you to eat! Cheese and sour cream on the potato! This never happens. You don't appreciate it."
Him: "I said it smelled good!!"
Me: "Ugh! You are so quick to complain when things aren't perfect or when things need to be done, but when I do something productive you don't even want to say 'thank you'!"
Him: "What is your problem? You need to chill out!"
Me: "Whatever! You have no appreciation! I have cleaned and cleaned and every piece of clothing is hung up and you even have clothes already ironed to wear tomorrow!!"
Him: "How am I supposed to know that? I have been here 3 minutes and haven't even been to the bedroom!"
Me: "UGH!!!!! Just forget it. You are so unappreciative!"

The rest of dinner was tense of course, and I was just fuming, all while deep down thinking about how absolutely insane I was being. He really hadn't been in the door more than a few minutes and he certainly doesn't have x-ray vision to see through the door to know that the bedroom is clean, too. But even though I knew I was being crazy, I wasn't backing down. I was ticked and I was going to let him know it. Inside I was telling myself I was officially one of those "crazy women" and outside negative words were just spewing out of my mouth. Ridiculous.

After we were quiet for a while, I say, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have nutted up on you." He says, "I don't even want to hear it. You were way off base!" (This honesty is something I usually like about my hubby, but last night it just ticked me off all over again, of course.) More quiet. Even more quiet. (By the way... All this time Little Man is just eating his dinner and laughing every once in a while. Oh, and having a fork sword fight with my hubby.) Finally Hubby says, "Dinner is really good." And all the anger melted. I didn't feel mad anymore. Things were back to normal after that. (Well, at least until an argument over a computer file, but that was just stupid and not worthy of the telling of it.)

Why is it that these unfounded arguments happen? I know I am not the only woman who has argued with her significant other for no other reason than the mood struck. I don't consider myself a crazy person (trust me, I know some crazy people, and I am not one of them!), but after an episode like the one last night I question myself. (Hubby, if you are reading this, I know what you are thinking and you can just keep it to yourself thankyouverymuch.)

Might we all have a little crazy in us? Im just sayin'...