I've been wanting to starting a weekly creative writing post.  I figured I would start today since I couldn't think of an answer to the Booking Through Thursday question.  So here's my first:

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Hunting for their perfect house was supposed to... one of the milestones of adult life.  Right?  I mean that's what we're all taught from an early age.  The American dream: graduate high school, graduate college, get a great job, find that perfect someone, get married, buy a house, have children, live happily ever after.  That's I what I thought.  I had my perfect job, my perfect husband, my perfect house, my perfect children all imagined in my head. And then reality sat in.

Mike and I met with a realtor.  A nice lady named Susan.  She was excited that we came with reasonable expectations of what our budget would buy.  She called us two days later with 5 showings.  "You're lucky!" she tells us.  "All five homes just came on the market this week.  You'll be among the first to see them.  I think we might have a winner here."  So Mike and I cleared our schedules and prepped for the hunting to begin.  To say we were excited was an understantement.  We were practically jumping up and down with antiicpation.

First House: A nice little three bedroom two bath in a great neighborhood.  I fell in love with the Spanish style architecture.  Mike argued that the yard was way too small.  Okay I can see that, but the house was in budget and in amazing condition.  Oh well, there are more...

Second House: A classic 1950s style ranch.  God it looked just like the Brady Bunch house.  Mike thought it had potential.  Yeah potential for me to have a heart attack from the stress of remodeling.  I don't think so.

We'd been at it all morning and now it was lunch time.  We really should have stopped for food, but the adrenaline was still pretty high.  So we continued.  In hindsight, this was where everything started going horribly wrong.

Third House: A two bedroom condo with no yard, but amazing view.  I loved, loved, loved it.  Mike thought it just wouldn't do.  "We're going to have six kids.  How are they going to fit in here?"  SIX KIDS!?!?!?!  When the hell did I ever agree to that?  I was thinking two kids, tops!  Right there in the newly refurbished kitchen with stainless steel appliances, Mike and I argued about how many kids we wanted to have. How did we never have this conversation?   We left that house not speaking.  But there were still two to go.  And I was determined to find the perfect house.

Four House: Classic three bedroom 60s two story.  Nice sized yard. Newly remodeled interior.  I loved it.  Classic.  Great neighborhood.  Nice yard.  There's even space for my craft room.  "Craft room?" says Mike.  That space is going to be my house gym.  "House gym? When do you ever workout?  When you come home from work, all I see you do is sit on the couch and watch tv."  "Well, you never craft!  When have you ever made anything in your life. All you do is sit next to me on the couch and watch tv."  All of this in front of the realtor.  I'm sure she had her own opinion, but thankfully she kept it to herself.  I think we went on for about 15 minutes, but who keeps track of time during an argument.

Fifth House: I barely even remember this house.  I think it was brown.

Mike and I continued the gym vs. craft room argument into the car ride over.  Somewhere it chnaged into a discusion of our various mothers.  I think I thanked the realtor for the showings.  I might have told her we would be in touch.  We arrived home, hungry and pissed.  I went to the bedroom and laid down.  I think Mike sat on the couch.  We stayed like that for most of the afternoon.  I recall eventually emerging for food (leftover Chinese).  And then I went to bed.  Mike slept on the couch.  Who knew house hunting could end a marriage?  Definitely not me.  I thought it was going to be one of the best days of my life.  Guess I should rethink that whole American Dream thing, huh?