The Pushing of the Buttons

Everybody has something. Something that irks them. A pet peeve. And sometimes you marry a person that brings your level of irritation to new heights. Someone that pushes your buttons.

Maybe it's towels on the floor. Maybe it's the toilet seat. Maybe it's leaving drawers open.

Not in this household. For us? Light switches.

We've been married for almost 7 years and this is our most common argument.

I leave light switches on. Grant likes them off. That's the gist of it. However, I feel like if I am home, if I am spending hours upon hours here and walking in and out of rooms as I clean up the house, follow Ellie around, and keep the household running, the lights are on. If I leave the house to go somewhere, I turn off the lights. Grant does not feel the same way.

Sometimes he walks through the house, hollering out the number of light switches he is turning off.

He turns off the light in the utility room. "ONE!"

The hallway outside the utility room. "TWO!"

Our bathroom. "THREE!"

I'll start with my very eloquent and educated defense: "I'M HERE ALL DAY!"

Closet, bedroom light. "FOUR AND FIVE!"

"I LIVE HERE!"

This continues as I get increasingly irritated with this little song and dance. At some point I will exclaim "It does. not. make. that. big. of. a. difference."

Then, he will head out the door to go to work, all the while talking about electricity bills as I'm yelling, "BYE. BYE. Have a good day. BYE!"

I try to be better about it. Sometimes I'll defend myself by saying "Ellie's bedroom light is off! Her light is off! I turned it off!"

The lights being off... it's just not where my passions lie. However, the trash bags being on the curb on time? That's a whole other story...