Our house has three bedrooms (and one office). Ailish and I actually managed to use all three.

The master bedroom, of course, was the default. It had the best bed, an adjoining bathroom, clothes, etc.

And then, we had a spare bedroom upstairs. I pretty much never used this, but Ailish did. Ailish and I had very different views on how a person should get up in the morning. I thought you should get up once your alarm clock went off. Or, ideally, wake up just before it went off. Ailish thought of the alarm clock as a sort of suggestion. One to be ignored. Over and over and over again. So, within a week of moving in together, we came up with a different plan. Ailish would wake up to her alarm at 5 or 5:30 in the morning, and walk over to the spare bedroom, where she would proceed to snooze for the next hour or so. Hey, in marriage, you have to make compromises.

We also have a bedroom in the basement. It’s much cooler down there, ideal for the summer months. The major downfall, from Ailish’s point of view, are the spiders. Despite there being no other insects as far as I can see, spiders just love the basement. Ailish hated spiders.

So, every time we slept downstairs, Ailish demanded that I do a spider check. This started out as just checking the corners of the room. Then I had to check the lampshade. The headboard. Then Ailish added the bathroom. I drew the line when she started implying maybe I should just check the whole entire basement, just in case.

I’ve been sleeping in the basement recently. It’s cooler and also darker down there, so it’s slightly easier for me to sleep. Last night, I found two spiders.