why you should listen to your wife

Chris calls it "nagging," and I call it "helping." I'll let you decide what term is more appropriate.

Whether it's "helping" Chris to scrape his dishes before he puts them in the dishwasher, or "helping" him acknowledge the poor carhop at Sonic that brings us our 1/2 priced shakes (an embarrassing amount of  two or more times a week), I am constantly finding ways to "help" him ;)

One thing I have been "helping" him with ever since we got married is using his blinkers. Up until this past Saturday night, Chris didn't believe me when I would say, "You need to signal! People HATE people that don't signal!" But then on our way home from a movie Saturday night, Chris rolled through a right turn at an intersection + didn't signal (double whammy!). Within seconds, there were red and blue lights flashing behind us. Sh*z! 

The officer walked up to my side of the car and signaled for me to roll down the window. I'm sure I was making my this-is-completely-my-husband's-fault-please-don't-get-mad-at-me face, because he ended up being really nice. The conversation went a little something like this:

policeman: Hey, is there a reason why you didn't stop or signal at that light back there?
Chris: Ohh... I didn't signal? I could've sworn I signaled! My wife is always on me about signalling.
policeman: (laughing) Well, she's gonna need to get on you a bit more, because you didn't signal or make a complete stop. I'm going to need to see your license and registration please...

While the police officer is doing whatever police officers do in their car, Chris is going off justifying his actions. "There's way worse things going on than people not using their blinkers!" "Do they have a certain quota they need to pull people over for?!" "I really can't get another ticket after last month." etc. It was actually kind of funny. It took all the willpower I had to not burst out and say I TOLD YOU SO!

Finally the officer came back and to both of our relief, he let Chris off with a warning. Then he looked at me and said something along the lines of  "I hope he starts listening to you," to which I replied, "I know. Hopefully this helps!" Then the officer gave a little chuckle and sent us on our way.

As the policeman was walking back to his car, I couldn't help but wonder if maybe he has a wife that "helps" him too, and maybe that was the reason he let Chris off with a warning, because he knows that dealing with your wife is a whole lot worse than a policeman...

I think it's safe to say that it'll be a while before I need to "help" Chris about signaling with his blinkers.