They sat quietly at the small, two-person table. 2011 started with a joint agreement to no longer eat dinner in front of the TV. She’d seen a report that it was linked to obesity. It was now November and TV was no longer the norm, rather it was reserved for special occasions when they were feeling lazy or decadent.
Early on she realized, that while she loved her husband and enjoyed spending time with him, they didn’t have enough conversation to fill every mealtime. Silence wasn’t an issue for her. But when you’re sitting in dead silence while chewing the natural impulse is to talk about something. Not one to keep her thoughts to herself she early on in the year stated, “You know, we just don’t have enough to talk about at dinner. Are we just going to sit and stare at each other and our food?” “We don’t have to talk all the time Love,” he said. She agreed. But still, boring.
She dropped into her thoughts to consider how satisfying marriage is. And how utterly boring it can be. Dinnertime is often the pinnacle of boring. Sometimes it’s comforting to eat in silence. Sometimes it’s exactly what she’s looking for. But when that active mind is going and she can hear the clock ticking it seems like one long meal. She remembers fondly racing home from work to change into her ‘going out’ clothes and running out to the bar to meet the girls and flirt with any handsome men she stumbled across.
She looked at her husband, eating. Finished her meal and headed to the couch to lose herself in the latest episode of Gossip Girl.