the meme of us

I admit stole this from elsewhere, but it looked like fun. Hopefully Mr. Bump won't consider this an overshare.

How long have you been together? Nine years, 15 days since we first met face to face. Six or so weeks longer since we met on the internet. Seems like a long time when you say it like that, but it doesn't feel so long. This also works out to 3303 days, or approximately 285,379,200 seconds.

How long did you date? One year and 9 months between when we started dating and when we got engaged. About a year before we moved in together.

How old is he? He's 36, I think, but as we all know I don't know my own age, so who knows?

Who eats more? Mr. Bump, I really hope. I tend to eat more dinner, but he grazes throughout the day pretty steadily. Of course, he also gets rid of more of his calories than I do, so I'm definitely retaining more.

Who said ‘I love you’ first? He did. Actually, he said "You know I love you, don't you?" which is sort of but not really the same thing.

Who is taller? Mr. Bump.

Who is smarter? Mr. Bump, fo sho. Here's a great example: last night we were watching the tail end of something before watching something else, and they were talking about candy. Wint'o'green lifesavers, to be exact, and why they spark when you bite them. Mr. Bump says, "triboluminescence, of course." The candy expert (what a job, eh?) had a long-winded explanation, which came down to triboluminescence, of course. I know more about pop culture and some literature, but EVERYTHING else he knows. He's smarter and as I get older I feel like I'm continuing to lose ground as my brain cells run off the cliff like lemmings to the sea.

Who does the laundry? We each do our own laundry, based on very different laundry philosophies. I cannot emphasize how much I HATE the laundry. Mr. Bump does his every 12 days or so, because that's when he runs out of underwear. I, as you can imagine, have waaaay more knickers than that. Also Mr. Bump likes to dry everything on HOT! so if he dries things of mine they tend to shrink, a direction my tummy can ill afford my clothes to go.

Who does the dishes? We both do, but Mr. Bump is much more diligent about it. He would rather a loadful not pile up on the counter above the dishwasher before we empty it. But that's mostly the part that's a drag--emptying the dishwasher. Although I don't know why.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I do right now, but we usually switch out when we move the bed or move beds (we usually sleep on a futon in the basement when it gets really hot in the summer). I don't like wind from the window blowing across my face at night, so usually Mr. is closer to the window if we can swing that.

Who pays the bills? Most everything is on bill-pay or goes through our credit card, which gets paid through bill-pay, but I would say I'm the one who "pays the bills" when we actually have to write checks, and I try to keep close tabs on how and when money is going out.

Who mows the lawn? Ah, we have no lawn, thank the baby Jebus. Mr. Bump keeps making rumblings about trying to grow herbs again, but I have washed my hands of all green things. Because I keel them. With my black thumb and my subtle innuendo.

Who cooks dinner? We both do, with a but. I usually start dinner, whether that be prodding Mr. Bump to decide what we'll have, or by just making something. Mr. Bump is really good about pitching in halfway through the cooking process to see what help he can be, and there are some meals, like pizza, where he starts the dough before I get home. So we're about 60-40 on who cooks, I'd say.

Who is more stubborn? He is. I'll cave just because I don't like conflict or because I'm impatient, but he's often intractable.

Who kissed who first? He kissed me, but he asked me first. Isn't that cute?

Who asked who out? I think it was me--I was the main pusher early on in the relationship, and, once again, thank the baby Jebus. Because we'd still be internet buddies if it wasn't for me. Seriously it just came down to my gross lack of patience. I wasn't willing to just "see what happens." I need to know. I need plans. I gotta be sure.

Who proposed? Here is that impatience thing again. He's the one who gave me a ring, but I would say I had everything pretty much planned before we got to that point, although I didn't start making any concrete plans until I had a ring. But we had talked about getting married pretty soon after we started dating, and definitely inked that on the "in the future" calendar before we moved in together, so the proposal was more of a formality than anything. I had decided we were going to get married the following October 13th by the middle of the summer of 2000, and it took until December for the ring to be finished. I was beginning to doubt it was every going to happen, despite his protests that it was in the works. He did keep all that a secret from me, so at least what the ring looked like was a surprise, and a lovely one at that.

Who is more sensitive? That would be me, hands down.

Who has more friends? Hrm. I would say I have more friends, but since a lot of them are strung out across the country, it's tough because I don't see them that often. I hang out with friends from my last job sometimes, and so for that reason I would say I have more friends, but only a few more. I find as we get older we seem to have fewer people to hang out with. It is very hard to make new friends when you're in your 30s, mostly because everyone seems to be having children, and their priority isn't going out and meeting new people. Maybe if you have kids you meet other people with kids and make more new friends, but I don't know.