5AM, Rain & Proper Noun Usage

At 4:30 this morning I was sleeping soundly following a wonderful Birthday dinner at my Mother’s house. I could hear the rain falling softly outside and snuggled up in my covers. It was so peaceful and I love to sleep when it rains so this was a very welcome sound. At 5:00 a.m. the rain began to beat on the windows waking both myself and my fiancé. I jumped straight up out of the bed, grabbed my robe and the flashlight and headed for the front door. My honey called after me to find out what wrong to which I replied, “My windows are down”.

Now, please remember that I drive a POS Jeep that has tons of stuff wrong with it. No air being the biggest problem so Memphis Summers are just a delight when I have to drive. The good thing is that I don’t live far from work so I don’t have to be in the hot car that long and I can, at least, roll down the windows. The second biggest problem with my POS is that about 3 weeks ago, I managed to, somehow, snap the wires that control my electric windows, in two. So, in order to roll my windows up or down, I have to engage the ignition, open the door half way and use needle-nose pliers to “hotwire” the window switch. Not bad in clear weather but at 5 a.m., half asleep, with a flashlight (that by the way, did not come from a school fundraiser), in the pouring down rain, it isn’t such an easy trick. Nevertheless, I don’t want to drive to work sitting in a puddle and Lord knows I wouldn’t want the empty cigarette packs and old Diet Coke cans that always seem to accumulate in the floorboard to get wet, so out I ran.

So there I was, hunched over in my Jeep, in my robe, with my flashlight and my pliers hotwiring the windows, when out runs my Honey. He flies by me, keys in hand, heading to his truck that is parked on the street. He gets all the way to the sidewalk and yells, “DAMMIT” and hauls tail back in the house. Meanwhile, I’ve managed to get one of the windows up and am now becoming increasingly concerned about the fact that I am holding two electrical wires together while rain pours on them. (Oh well, can’t think about that now, there is a Wendy’s sack in the front seat that is getting ruined!) I finish rolling up my windows and schlep back into the house looking like a drowned rat. There, standing in the kitchen, with water dripping off his bald head, was my Honey, looking a little irritated.

I was a bit confused as it is I that just spent 5 minutes in a monsoon working with live electrical wires while balancing a battery operated light source with my ankles. I asked him what was wrong and he says, “You said my windows were down!” Uhhh, well I guess he was correct, I did say the words “my windows are down”. We are “language people” so he should not have been surprised when I said, “I know. They were”. “No they weren’t”, he replies. “I beg to differ Baby, MY windows were down. Had I thought that YOUR windows were down, I would’ve said ‘Baby, YOUR windows are down’.” God knows I love him and would do anything in the world for him, but jumping out of bed in the middle of the night and run out into the rain to roll up someone else’s windows – yeah, I’m thinking I would’ve pretended I didn’t hear the rain and given him a towel to sit on in the morning.

Obviously, standing in the kitchen, in a puddle, soaking wet at 5:00a.m., isn’t something that puts him in the bests of moods. The response I got to my, what I believed to be witty, explanation was, “How am I supposed to know what you were talking about at 5a.m.” I am learning to choose my battles wisely. My first instinct was to say, “well Baby, by MY, I meant an object that belongs to ME, thus indicating the POS Jeep in the driveway” as I smiled at him sweetly and patted him on the head. But, I am learning and because I love this man, I decided it was better to just let it go so instead I replied, “Well you told me it wasn’t going to rain until Friday!” (That’ll teach him) My Honey isn’t as quick a learner as I because he responded, “technically it IS Friday”. I just gave him my best, “you don’t want to go there smile” as I dried my hair with a paper towel and tried to squeeze the water out of my slippers. At that point he realized that this was probably better a discussion to have during daylight over coffee so he began to prepare the coffee pot for brewing – I went back to bed.

Later that morning as I drove to work, sitting on my towel, I couldn’t help but giggle. My Honey has told me 1000 times that he would follow me to the ends of the Earth. I never would’ve thought that at 5 a.m. on a rainy Friday morning, the end of the Earth would be my own front door J Bless his heart –