I scurry to the kitchen from our bedroom like I’m a running back with my eye on the end zone.
(Just to be clear, I had to Google what a running back actually does + I originally said “inzone” not end zone. THAT’S how much I know about football.)
It’s a familiar scene in the Conci household; the tea kettle is whistling + I need to shut that thing down before the neighbors call the police for a welfare check on me.
Enter me sprinting like I know what I’m doing.
Except my Hubs already let me know – like 3 minutes before the whistle blew – that it was about ready to spew like Yellowstone’s geyser.
I ignored him of course.
I was pounding away on my laptop like a herd of elephants making their way across the desert.
That’s what usually happens when I’m so deep in computer work – I forget what the hell is happening around me until the damn kettle whistles so loud it startles the ever-living-shit out of me, and I run like my life depends on it.
And then I turn that sucker off + feel triumphant for an insignificant moment because I slayed some water beast.
But this time, the Hubs got me, and I didn’t even know it.
“You know how I came in and told you this thing was about to blow?” the Hubs grinned as he spoke.
“Uh-huh
“Well, it was about to blow because I knew that’s the only way you’d listen. I already took the kettle off the burner, but I placed it back on ’cause I knew you’d react to the whistle blowing…and not me telling you that thing was about to go nuclear.”
Sneaky little shit, this guy, I thought.
But he knows me best.
And he was right.
(Why does he have to give me life lessons via a tea kettle?)
Why do we wait for the kettle whistle to blow?
Do we like being startled?
Is it easier to just anticipate + then react?
I’m not sure why some of us learn the first go around, or why some take a few soul-screeching turns to get something.
Do we learn better by watching someone else experience life — even when it’s difficult and crushing?
Or do we have to take every hit?
I know I’m waxing philosophical here, but dang, you’d think I’d be tired of learning life lessons via a whistling kettle + the ignoring of common sense.
What whistles are blowing for you?
Love + Blowing Off Steam,
Keli