wading in shallow water

This is where I've spent most of my life--until now

Monday, January 30, 2006

This thing called love...I mean space

This weekend I had a fight with my husband. Not a new fight. This is a fight we have had maybe four times now and it always begins and ends the same way. It goes something like this:

Husband: "I'm sorry that I'm a jerk. I don't know why I do some of the things I do. If you want me to leave, I will."
Me: "Yes, I want you to leave. I need space."

So he gathers up a few items and moves into his music studio for...a night. It is never any longer than this, just one night. And he never takes anything with him that he can't live without except his toothbrush and clean underware. He does take items that have found their way into the house that really belong in the studio anyway--new CD burner, memorabilia from tours across the country and Europe, microphones (or anything else that was brought home from the last gig.)
We have an attic bedroom that became a music/tv room when we moved in to our house because he has so much stereo equipment that it needed its own space. This room eventually became my husband's space so I guess he thought he could fill it with more stuff.
When he sleeps in his studio, he sleeps on the fold down seat he takes out of his van. I'm sure this doesn't bother him at all considering he has usually spent from 4pm until close at the local pub. It doesn't bother me either because the dogs and I get the bed to ourselves and none of us snore. I can also get a substantial amount of reading or writing done without being bothered.

Back to the fight.

He shows up the next morning at home and we have coffee and make small talk until we say how much we missed each other and then a discussion begins about the actual cause of the fight.
This time we talked all day. We decided to talk while we shopped. Actually, I was going shopping and he is smart enough to know that if he wants permission to move back in, he should probably shop too (read sucking up).
I was looking for a couch and shadow box for our recently created tv/stereo room (aka Elvis' room). I found the shadow box and a set of aqua and gold highball glasses but no couch. I made the purchases while he stood by and said whatever you want dear.
There is a reason we are redoing a room for his stereo equipment and our life size cardboard Elvis. It is so that I can have my own space. The attic bedroom is offically mine now, sort of. It will house two twin beds for company and for a daughter still in college who randomly graces us with her presence when she needs laundry done. But still, it is my space. And I need it. Presently, I can't write unless he is gone because he wants to talk. If he is not talking, he is singing. Or playing his guitar.
My husband and I have decided that despite our love and affection for each other, we have a lot of problems.
We married too old. He was in his early 50's and I was in my late 40's. We have only been married for 18 months.
We were by ourselves for a multitude of years before marrying and not only are we use to having our own space, we need our own space.
We are both creative people. He is a singer/songwriter and I am a fiction writer. Neither one of us understands the other's process. We don't understand each other's motive or drive. What we do understand is that we can use each other for an excuse not to write and then blame each other for not getting anything done.
He left for work this morning saying that he would take the rest of his stuff to the studio tonight and, that I should start thinking about shopping for whatever I need for my space. My space.
My space won't solve all our problems. But I don't think it will create any new ones either. At least when I say I need my space, I can leave. Unless, of course, the house becomes littered with studio stuff again...

13 Comments:

Blogger shortstory said...

Pammy, I think it is ok not to know what you want, even at your age...which is less than my age.
I have been in similar situations with my girls vs husbands. My girls have always won out. My reasoning is that I brought them into this world without them asking and I only get to relish that time for so long before they go away (and eventually they do).
I have seen you silently struggle with this at different times. That is what you need to talk to Bill about. If you need more time w/ your daughter and Bill says that will make him feel abandoned, then you don't need Bill or any man who makes you chose. Personally, I don't think Bill would ever put you in that situation. More than likely, those are situations we women put ourselves into. As women, we allow a lot of unnecessary behavior to happen.
The other side of the coin is that I have had my children try to manipulate situations with hubbys. This usually was a cry for attention and the need to know they are still loved. They were pretty young then. Now, they know me so well they usually side w/ hubby or give me advice--which I probably need.
After three marriages, I still don't think I know what I'm doing. But I do know I want to keep this one.

7:32 AM  
Blogger shortstory said...

YOU end up compromising. But usually that works for everyone but you.
This I have learned. When it starts effecting you, it effects everyone.
Be honest with yourself and Bill and your daughter and your friends. The people who love you won't pull you in all kinds of directions if you are honset and say that you can't do it. Then everyone realizes that they have to compromise too because not compromising means that Pam is being hurt.
And don't forget that you love yourself. You know in your heart you can't be pulled in all directions. And you know in your heart that it hurts to try.
I think we need girl talk over drinks.

8:19 AM  
Blogger 10-8-ious said...

Great Melissa Ethridge line: “ecstasy aint free, but compromise is chance”.

I have definitely come to the conclusion that I am way to set in my ways to live with someone again. I definitely want to have another (maybe several) close committed relationships again before I move on, but I’m keeping my own house and they can’t move in. My mother was in a very loving relationship for 20+ years with a man who lived an hour away – they spent every weekend and Wednesday night together and took turns who’s house they spent them at. Mom was still raising kids for some of that time, but even after we were grown and gone, they never moved in together. They both swore that moving in together would have been the end of them

Different things work for different people, and it doesn’t matter who else likes it or doesn’t. By our age, figuring it out isn’t all that hard – we know what we need/want; but actually having the nerve to live it – now that takes guts.

We all (lovers, family, friends) need to give each other the space and respect we need to live our lives as ourselves.

(okay sorry – I have my own blog –I’ll try to do my ranting over there instead of here on your comments!)

11:09 AM  
Blogger Confessions of a Starving Mystery Writer said...

Oh God...I'm a musician and a writer, totally unfit for female consumption...

12:35 PM  
Blogger Confessions of a Starving Mystery Writer said...

P.S. Been there and done that with the kid thing. A complete and total no win situation for the guy. Understandable but sucks, none the less....

12:43 PM  
Blogger shortstory said...

Thanks for stopping by for a read and write.

Dale, sounds like your mom was a very wise woman and maybe that kind of situation is what Pam needs right now.
CWC and I have had a hard go of it since Vegas for numerous reasons, those I mentioned and the fact that I am really independant. We love each other...we just find it difficult to live with each other sometimes. We will work on it but we aren't excluding the possibility that we might have to live apart to love each other.
RJ-from my experience, the kid thing is NOT alawys a no win situation for the guy. My daughters have a real father and two stepdads that they love and respect and have a good relationship with.
They call them "our three dads" (our four dads if you include adopted pops Ozzy).
But developing those types of relationships requires a lot of balance, structure, compromise and acceptance.
My structure required that the dads in my daughters' lives were only required to love and accept them. They were NEVER to disipline them, that was my job because I was always the constant in their lives and it was a job that I only trusted myself to do.
I think the greatest compliment I ever received was from my 2nd ex. After my youngest went off to college, he told me that I had done a wonderful job raising my daughters. This said, despite the fact that he was and still is a part of their lives. That was my structure.
The balance and compromise are the general things we struggle with as women and moms.

1:21 PM  
Blogger Confessions of a Starving Mystery Writer said...

Being married adds a whole different dynamic and dimension that in many cases never occurs because the guy either bails or is run off. I've been involved in both types of situations and both times I end up on the outside looking on.

3:19 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, any one can start now and make a brand new ending -carl bard

I am always here for you mom..I love you so much..

11:11 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This space upstairs was never really his space. Not if you told him what he could or could not keep in it. My advice to CWC would be to take the money for the couch and buy a decent bed for the studio. Love you SS

8:53 AM  
Blogger shortstory said...

I hadn't thought about that...a studio couch would make a nice bday gift...

9:56 AM  
Blogger 10-8-ious said...

OUCH!

12:08 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

no one can make you feel inferior without your consent.....

8:15 AM  
Blogger Ginger said...

The first fight I ever had with my ex was back when we were dating and I lived in a one-room studio. I was working on a sculpture and he stopped by to pick up his jacket. I told him he couldn't stay long because I was working on something, he sat down "just to watch the news" and I went back to work.

An hour or so later he started getting undressed for bed and I asked him what the hell he thought he was doing...eight years later when we got divorced he still didn't get it.

Its good that you're trying to hash this out now - I know that at this point it would drive me absolutely nuts to live with someone else, no matter how much I loved them. I wish you the best - and enjoy your new studio, revel in it and write naked! (given the title of your blog, if you wrote naked could that be considered skinny dipping?)

12:09 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home