The trials and tribulations of sharing a computer

I suppose this post could be about marriage in general, since this is the same sort of thing that happens when two people share a bathroom, a refrigerator, a closet or a car... except my husband knows how to work the shower, close the refrigerator door, stay out of my side of the closet and leave the car radio tuned to MY radio station! (Well, that last part's not exactly true but it sounded good and probably could fall under the New Year's resolution "Thinking Positively".) The trouble is the computer. It's not that he doesn't know how to work it - he does, kind of. But really, he has just enough information to believe he knows what he is doing and that's how I ended up with a post on my blog (a POST!) about a motorcycle. He thought he was commenting on someone else's blog. I don't exactly know how that happened at all but if you checked out this page in the last 36 hours or so, there was a really weird post from yesterday. So, it wasn't me. Not that I wouldn't have enjoyed a Bizarro comic of a motorcycle with a baby seat on the back... but I WOULD have known how to post that on the Bizarro Blog - which I just taught my husband to do (also explaining how to NOT post his comments as "Helicoptor Mom".)

Let's face it. I don't think he even knows I do this! I mean, he notices me at the computer. And he sees I am writing something but in the same way he tunes out the sound of American Idol coming from the TV as I watch it, he tunes out the whole blog process entirely. Even as he is posting as me. We don't read each other's email (at least I don't read his and I assume he doesn't read mine) but that doesn't mean that once in awhile he doesn't accidentally click on something of mine. The only reason I know that is when I get online to check my email and something I haven't read is marked as "read". The thing is, he doesn't even notice he did that! If I did that, I would mark the email as "unread" so he wouldn't miss it. But I do everything in a much more conscious way, I think. He can't possibly be thinking - otherwise how would he have NOT KNOWN that he posted on my blog!!!!

I guess you can see that it bugged me. Particularly because my first thought WASN'T "my husband inadvertently posted on my blog thinking he was commenting on someone else's blog" - no, my first thought was "someone hacked my computer and now they're going to steal my identity!!!!" This caused me some stress. For awhile. Until I read the post... about a BMW motorcycle. It is safe to assume that if a BMW motorcycle is being referenced, my husband is in on it. I guess I should be glad he's gotten past the "replying to me when I've forwarded an email to him" - I told him about it the first few times. Then I just started copying and pasting and sending it for him. Sometimes it's easier if I pretend I'm his assistant. Like when I hit "send" for the emails he has just left sitting on the desktop, addressed and ready to go, but sucked into "drafts". I used to ask first but now I just make sure it's complete and there isn't a duplicate in the "sent mail" folder, and then I hit "send". It's not so bad to be an assistant - I get to flirt with my boss and he doesn't even know why! Or be a total bitch and not have to worry I'll get fired. But sometimes I'd just like to know that he has "quit" all the programs and not just closed all the windows and that if he accidentally clicked on an unread email of mine that he'd make it look like he hadn't so I wouldn't have to end up explaining, a week later, how I missed that important email.

On the other hand, sharing a computer is an act of total trust. I could read his email, see where he goes on the web, read his documents, proof his resume. But I don't. Because after 20 years, if we don't have trust, we don't have anything. So 20 years, we have trust (and he has typos and I have a random post on my blog) - I think it's a pretty fair trade off.

And besides, I can't read his email - I'm too busy hovering over my daughter!! (And no, I don't read her email either - because she's too busy texting to use email!)