Peace, Love, & Pearls

Opposites Attract
or: why karma is no bitch

by: caro

For those of you who are unfortunate enough to not know me in real life (undoubtedly you are readers that are from the future, after Lola & I become famous, reading the entries from the early days of peace, love & pearls...) you probably do not know about my financial irresponsibility from my collegiate days. Without going into deep (and shameful) detail, let's just say that while my peers were worshiping at the throne of Carrier Library & the Showker Computer Lab, I spent my days, and nights, and basically every waking minute worshiping at the throne of shoes, handbags, and Greek Letter t-shirts.

Fast forward 18 months from graduation. I meet Mr. Wonderful, the last remaining thing on the planet known as a "good man," in my opinion (be it ever so humble). So many things about Mr. Wonderful contradict my life and how I had lived it, that I have honestly begun finding humor in these contradictions.

Contradiction #1: my older sister is a CPA. I made fun of her for years for being an accountant. I told her for every gift giving holiday that "I'm sorry I cannot afford a TI-83 for you, this necklace [magic bullet, gift certificate, shirt] will have to do in the meantime." I scoffed at her for dating other accountant types, constantly informing her that accountants are "lame" and "what do you talk about? how much your fingers hurt from crunching numbers all day long?" So, it only makes sense that Mr. Wonderful is not only an accountant, but works for one of those fancy big 4 or 5 (hey I'm a party planner, I can't keep track of which accounting firms are performing acts of insider trading and pilfering money from their clients or whatever, thereby being shut down and shamed in "the industry") downtown. Life will ALWAYS come back to knock you flat on your ass. However, instead of making fun of the big sister, now I just make fun of him.

Contradiction #2: Mr. Wonderful is slightly (adorably) dorky. And I can put this in a public post because I tell him this on a daily basis. It is said with all the love and adoration in the world (and a little known secret I will make public-I love a dork!) and he knows I don't mean it in a put down sort of way. Quite the opposite. Anyways, Mr. Wonderful lives for his spreadsheets and databases. Nary a weekend goes by that I don't say, "Mr. Wonderful, what are you doing this afternoon?" to which he replies "working on the computer," which is code for 'updating my 25 sheet workbook in excel of my various investments and putting in the movies and concerts we have seen recently into the database of concerts and movies." God love him. When it comes to me working on the computer its more like "Sift through google reader, lust over the latest collection at J. Crew, see when the Jen Lancaster book tour is stopping in Chicago [May 6th!!], and drool over the latest Williams-Sonoma gadgets."

I guess its true what "they" say. Opposites really do attract. Because Mr. Wonderful has been saving pennies for two things since he was 16 (and he'll be 28 next month...) 1-down payment on a house 2-my 2 carat asscher cut engagement ring. Good thing he started at 16, that's all I'll say about that. He invests constantly in his 401(k) and has a variety of other accounts that pull random (but i'm SURE meaningful) letters from the alphabet like an IRA and god only knows what else. Me? I consider it a blessing to not get charged from my savings account for "excessive withdraws" and I really get nervous thinking of putting into an account that I literally cannot touch. No thank you Mr. IRA I like my money right where I can see it (whether that's hanging in my closet ala Carrie Bradshaw, or where I can view it easily from my shiny laptop). So, the way I see it, we have two very individual responsibilities in the relationship. He is responsible for keeping us in the black. I am responsible for keeping us well dressed. And those are gender roles I will gladly accept.