Ménage à Trebek

Adam went back to work today for the first time since his injury.

HALLELUJAH!

It has been a tough road. Not just for his ankle (which is doing great by the way, he just started being able to put weight on that foot this week!) but also for our relationship.

The first few weeks he was home, I was all Florence Nightingale and pleasantries. I set up the air mattress in the living room so in case he needed anything in the middle of the night I would be right there. I packed him a cooler each morning of all the food he would need for the day since he could barely get off the couch. I emptied his urinals (or as he charmingly calls them " piss buckets"). I was all "Boo, can I get you anything? How can I make you more comfortable? Let me know the second you need ANYTHING!"

A few weeks later, it was quite a different scene.

I was grumpy and all "WHY ME". You could often find me standing over Adam and saying chidingly "Adam, before you ask me for something I want you to ask yourself "Is this something I could possibly do for myself?"" and "I JUST got up to get you a granola bar, WHY didn't you ask me for a glass of water when I was already IN the kitchen!!"

Hey, I never said I was a nurse type.

I was happy to take care of Adam in his time of need and did whatever I could to make him more comfortable, but injury aside we still are the kind of couple who can't be together 24/7. Even though we love each other and live together, that works for us because we both have our own things going on. Besides work, Adam has school and hockey or baseball, and I am working on Shecky's stuff, or going out with various friends, running errands, etc. Most weeks we just have a few nights together and the rest of the time we are off doing our own things and this is what works for us (hey it's been almost four years, we must be doing something right, right?)!

So he being laid up in the house all the time for a few months and me having to be around to attend to him was a necessity and something I was glad to do (I know he would have taken care of me had the roles been reversed) but towards the end I was getting a little, um, snippy. I would come home from work, exhausted after a long day that usually involved running errands on my way home and Adam, poor soul, would be all hyper from being cooped up all day and be like "HEY WHATS UP WHAT ARE YOU DOING LETS WATCH A MOVIE WHATS FOR DINNER HOW WAS WORK WHAT DID YOU DO WHATS THAT!?"

Christ.

So I started retreating to the bedroom after dinner and watching Law and Order, playing on the laptop, just trying to still do my own thing which of course wasn't fair to Adam, it's not his fault he is home all day and of course he was bored. And truth be told he is an excellent patient, never complaining (well, not so much), always in a good mood, always happy to see me. And knowing that just made me feel bad about being a bitch, but didn't cause me to stop acting like one.

Then something funny happened.

About a month ago I was in the bedroom flipping through channels on the TV and Adam was watching the TV in the living room when we both put it on Jeopardy, which we had watched from time to time but not at all regularly.

Since we were both watching it, I shut off the bedroom TV and went into the living room to hang with him and we ended up having a blast answering the questions, joking around, and more often than not a particular question (or, answer as it were) would spark a memory and have us reminiscing about fun times.

So we started watching every night. at 7:30 each night we stop what we are doing, I grab him a beer, pour myself a glass of wine and we settle down - he on the couch with his leg up on pillows and me on the arm chair, for a half hour of trivia.

And you know what? That's my absolute favorite part of the day now. I look forward to it each night and if we are out we DVR the episode and watch it when we come home. It's like built in Sarah and Adam time that doesn't revolve about his ankle or me complaining or anything else: it's just fun!

So if nothing else, now that this ankle business is basically over, I can look back and feel good about us. I know that we can handle rough times together with as much grace as we handle good times: meaning we may bitch and complain but in the end it all works out great.

Especially if this dude is involved.