When I was an economics student, the process of mean reversion was kind of interesting to me. Okay, I just realized that if anyone was actually reading this post, they have probably stopped. But, if you are still reading this, stay with me a minute. Anyway, it was interesting to me that, for example, inherited or spontaneous wealth has a tendency to mean-revert, exemplified by the high percentage of lottery winners who end up broke after a few years. Another fine example is Barbara Hutton, heiress of the fabulous Woolworth fortune, who died with only a couple of thousand dollars in the bank.
Rob has been away this week and without him, I have been reverting to some single-girl ways. Now don’t get too excited: this is not a post about me Mrs. Robinson-ing with the guys down the street or anything. Since I’m at home with the kids, the shape of our days is pretty much the same as it always is, with some exceptions, dinner preparation being the most notable. The only reason I’m not eating popcorn for dinner is because our ancient and cheap air popper recently set off the fire alarm. I have, however, eaten Greek salad and pita bread for four straight nights, allowing the kids to eat cheese pizzas and chicken fingers. Dinner notwithstanding, the real difference in my day is when the kids are in bed. It’s a smorgasbord of wine drinking, straight-from-the-box cereal eating, and, sadly, NYPD Blue rerun watching. It’s like when the cat’s away the mice will play, only the mice are lamely addicted to the episodes with Kelly and Sipowitz, and also Mini-Wheats.
Now I’m going to go out on a limb and say something that may actually make you die laughing: I think motherhood has actually made me cooler. Please stop laughing. Despite the fact that I absolutely love my minivan, I think I am actually cooler now than before I had kids. Please note that this is highly relative, I mean really, I’m pretty lame. I still love me a good book and a good math-based joke, but at least I don’t spend my days poring over Visual Basic and creating option pricing models. When Rob’s away though, my (relative) coolness evaporates and what emerges is a lame-o girl with a weird crush on David Caruso.
So here’s the question of the day: what behaviours do you revert to when your significant other is out of town?
Hey, we have stuff in common! Not the economics student stuff – no. – but the reverting to singlehood stuff the SECOND my husband is gone. Planned suppers FLY out the window. OH, and wine drinking and cereal, too.
Is mean reversion really common? That IS interesting.