His and Hers

His and her sinks. I think I've dreamed about having them since I got married. The thought of having my own sink, hair, toothpaste, and beard trimming-free has tickled my fancy ever since sharing day in and day out the little European sinks. So when we moved and were lucky to find a place with a master bathroom with not one, but 2 sinks, I was elated. I imagined getting up in the morning and brushing my teeth beside my hubby, not behind or in front of him. I imagined washing my face and not being pushed aside to make room for the next person in the room. I saw myself putting on makeup while hubby shaved beside me. Oh, the joy of having my own sink.

So when we first moved in, I asked hubby which sink he wanted. He looked at both, thought for a while, and said, "well, I'll take the one closest to the wall. That way I can plug in my razer when I shave. "Done," I agreed. I arranged my side to make it look pretty, putting a nice perfume bottle, a decorative box of Kleenex, and a little candle on my side. I made sure it looked nice and clean. I took my hair out of the sink after combing it. I wiped the toothpaste off after brushing my teeth. This ritual went on every day. The first week, I cleaned hubby's sink of the beard and hair and toothpaste. It was great. I had my own place to get ready, my own mirror, my own drawers.

But after that first week, something funny started to happen. I noticed that my sink had an awful lot of dark dark hair in it. And toothpaste. And beard trimmings. At first, I thought that maybe it was me forgetting to clean up after myself (minus the beard trimmings ;-). My weekly cleaning was back to 2 sinks. It was pretty clear what was going on. So I asked hubby if he preferred to change sinks. He could take mine, and I could take his. "Agreed", he said. "I seem to keep going to yours".

So we started over, this time with his sink closest to the shower. Except there were still beard trimmings. And toothpaste. And hair in my sink. It's been a month now, and I have resided to the fact that there is no such thing as his and her sinks. There are only his and his.