Watching a Game

I was watching the BYU Volleyball game last night. Tracy was doing her normal task of being interrupted every 30 seconds by the children...but I digress. (Discussion shortened and altered to make me look wonderful.)


Me: Sarah was the libero during the South Elgin game today. I wonder if she will play in college. I think she's really good.
....
Me: Oh, when I went to IT Monday with the kids, one of the scenes was dated "October 1988" and I told them that I was dating you during that time.

Tracy: Yeah. That was an interesting time. Did you tell them that a month later....

Me: Ok, ok. I'm a little bit uncomfortable by how fast that all happened there. With age, I would have done things a lot differently.

Tracy: Hmmmm. Maybe. Still it was quite a time. <pause> And you were so irritating.

Me: Irritating? I know I'm irritating now a differently than I was then, but is it fair that that is what you bring up first?

Tracy: But it wasn't bad. It was just different. My first boyfriend told me how beautiful and wonderful I was. Then he became abusive. I got out of that. The next one was simpering. He would have done anything for me. Then one guy kind of ignored me. You didn't do any of those things. You asked me before you held my hand and before you kissed me. I'd never had that happen. You treated me differently. You invited me into your life, you didn't demand mine.

Me: Radical consent. But I also stopped asking you out. You didn't seem interested in me at all and I wasn't going to waste my time with trying to convince you anymore.

Tracy: Yeah, but we worked that out. You don't understand how it was like dating. There was a building 9 stories tall filled with girls crying because they weren't going on a date that week. It wasn't just dating. We had to find our "Eternal Companion". It wasn't marriage, it was ETERNITY...not getting into heaven unless you snagged a man. The pressure was horrible.

Me: Yeah, and thank you for putting that into context. It explained a lot of what I was seeing from these women.

Tracy: But for you, it was all earning potential. You had lots of earning potential.

Me: Ha! That worked out well for you, didn't it?