What We've Become

Tobie and I reached a new low in our relationship this weekend.

We've been feeling a little downtrodden lately, both of us dealing with the usual frustrations / stressors of school, lack of finances, and upcoming exams. I partly blame those reasons, and partly the fact that when you are in a relationship long enough you start to lose the need to 'look your best' for one another at all times. Mind you, I have always been just this side of completely hopeless when it comes to fashion sense, but Tobie usually looks rather dapper. As a result, I attempt to lift my game somewhat when he's around.

Friday night we both wanted to just go out for dinner so we could bypass all the razmatazz of cooking/cleaning, but then after the realization that there still is nowhere decent in town to eat on a student budget we decided to just splash out and buy some steaks and make ourselves something good.

One delicious steak, mushrooms, homemade ceasar salad, and baked potato later we were about busting our jogging suit waistbands, so we headed out for an evening stroll. Tobie had the decency to put on some pants. I stayed in my pit-stained t-shirt and unfortunate lycra capris.

Though, for the record, he chose are the pants we call "the frontal butts" because they make him look like he has a butt, in the front.

The 'triumph' of a frontal butt.

Almost home, walking back on campus, we were discussing what movie to watch. Tobie suddenly stopped and said, "Look at us! Look what all the stress and lack of sleep has done to our fashion sense and ability to live it up on a Friday night. We've basically given up. We've become those people who go out in jogging suits with mustard stains their shirts, then sit in front of a television set after a hard week."

We both started howling as we took a look at ourselves. Yep. We then started playing out 'worst case scenario people' that we could run into. We both thought of our friend Kris who (IMHO) is by far one of the most beautiful, well dressed (and sweet) women in my class. Her Manfriend is also a snazzy dresser. We imagined going around the corner and running into the two of them, both dressed immaculately and stylishly...then...pan to us.

Shorts cut to make legs as unattractive as possible.

Us [spoken with awkward lisp]: "Hey guys! Fancy meeting you out here on a Friday night! Hey, you guys want to come over for some seven-up, beans on toast, and chicken wings dipped in ranch sauce?? We're probably going to watch a documentary later!"

K & G [smelling good, looking great]: "Um, that sounds great but we are going out for martinis at a new bar that just opened downtown".

Us [mindlessly kicking the dirt with our orthopedic shoes]: "Suit yourselves!"

Maybe it is a good thing that Tobie and I are going to be apart for a little while, and that we're both heading into professional-ish roles again soon. Lord knows, we've fallen so far already we may never return to baseline. In the meantime, you might be able to catch us on an Irish version of What Not to Wear.