He’s In His Own Little Box

(I love my husband, but my biggest pet peeve with him is his tendency to completely zone out on me if he’s on his phone, reading, watching a movie, etc. He will literally not notice things happening right in front of him when he’s “in the zone.” I know this, so I try to make sure he’s actually paying attention if I’m saying something to him. Sometimes, though, the things he misses still baffle me. A couple examples:)

Me: *carries full dog bowls into the living room, where he is reading a newspaper, followed by three large, happily barking dogs* “Yay, puppy dinner! Who’s ready for dinner? Here we go!”

Husband: *thirty minutes later* “Hey, did the dogs eat dinner?”

Me: “Yes. Loudly and literally right in front of you.”

(One evening, I spend almost an hour in our enclosed porch, in full view from his spot on the couch, breaking down old boxes and straightening up.)

Me: *coming back into the house and sneezing multiple times* “Wow, that last box was covered in pollen! I can already feel my sinuses clogging up.”

Husband: *looks up from his phone* “What box?”

Me: “I just spent an hour tearing apart boxes and cleaning up the sunroom.”

Husband: “Oh, okay. Good job.”

(The next day.)

Me: “Ugh… my nose is so stuffy from that pollen yesterday.”

Husband: “What pollen?”

Me: “From the boxes.”

Husband: “…”

Me: “The boxes I spent nearly an hour tearing apart in the sunroom? I was cleaning up out there? You could see me through the window.”

(A couple days after that, we’re taking the dogs for a walk and decide to walk out through the sunroom.)

Husband: “Hey, it looks cleaner in here.”

Me: “Seriously? I straightened up the other night, when I was breaking down the boxes.”

Husband: “What boxes?”

Me: “Do you even notice when I’m gone?!”