Observant... or not.

Sometimes, husband and I talk about things we don't like. 

Specifically, things we don't like about the other person. 

I know. It sounds negative and critical. But when you've been married for 4.5 years and often spend 20+ hours together on road trips, it's bound to come up. 

Let's just skip to the top of his list: 

I'm not very observant. aka: the verge of oblivious. 

While there is truth to this, let me give a few examples:

1. He has something on his face, or wrinkles in his shirt. And I don't notice. 

2. I'm washing a pot and miss a spot. Or several spots. And I place it on the drying rack as if it's clean.

3. I decorate the Christmas tree and the lights are uneven with more on the bottom than the top, but I think it looks great. 

4. I drive on the bumpy part of the road, instead of scooting over to the smooth part. Or maybe hit a few potholes without any effort to dodge them. 

5. I turn up the music super loud and sing along (not noticing the strange noises our car begins to make which gradually get worse over time).

You get the idea. So this fifth point is a problem. You see... I did finally notice the strange noise that sounded like a washing machine was on heavy cycle spin in our trunk. But by this point, the damage was done. 

Luckily (or more accurately, by the hand of God) we were able to make it to Autozone, find the part we needed and then find a mechanic who was willing to fix our car on a Saturday night at 8:30pm and only charged us $20 and a 12-pack of Busch-Light cans. Phew! I sure love our small redneck town. The people are the best. 

But honestly, to give myself some credit here...I'm very observant when it comes to people's feelings. I can always tell the minute something is wrong, the minute someone is sad or hurt, the minute he's getting annoyed (sometimes I can even predict this the minute before it even happens), and the minute I probably shouldn't talk to him for 1-2 hours. 

I guess we all have things we're good at and things that need improvement. Good thing we've got an eternity to work it out!