Ironing

Yes, that's Ironing, not Irony.

Ironing, I hate ironing. I used to not do it at all (read: when I was mostly single). I wore my clothes either hung up straight out of the dryer (and how often did that happen? hell, I was at the bar - not ironing) or rumpled.

* youthful cadbury may not be exactly as shown

I'm lying actually - because I wore suits to clubs a lot (it was the 80s after all) I ironed all the shirts I wore to go dancing (5 shirts a week or so...). I would have had them done by the dry cleaner, but I was a student and all and my dry cleaning bill on my suits was killer (I sweat a lot when engaged in strenuous activity).

When I was dating mrs_c I didn't do much ironing.

At first.

Then I got comments from mrs_c like "Yeah, it's funny, my Mom said 'I noticed that [cadbury] doesn't always iron his shirts'. I guess she doesn't understand the bachelor lifestyle.

[pause]

Why don't you iron your shirts? It's not like you don't have the time..."

That last reference about having the time was a not very subtle poke at the fact that I was unemployed at the time - well, I was working part-time by that point - but mrs_c called it unemployed.

Anyway, comments of this nature continued throughout our courtship. I eventually made sure that everything I wore around mrs_c and/or her family was ironed - including jeans and t-shirts.

After we were married I continued ironing. Mrs_C would also iron my stuff.

After we had children things changed only in that my participation in ironing decreased as my time on food/meals/dishes and child care increased.

Now I'm on my own.

I still don't like ironing.

Except now I actually like to have ironed clothes. Not so much because I give a shit about whether they are ironed or not, but because the vast majority of women that I have any interest in prefer a neatly pressed man.

* a dramatisation of a well pressed cadbury

(have I got pretty much only one thing on my mind? yes. but you already knew that didn't you...)

The juxtaposition of mrs_c and ironing associations and prepping myself for sex appeal through well ironed clothes is creating a somewhat itchy spot in my mind.

[later edit: I realised, as I proofread, that it's not true - I actually like to be neatly pressed now. I think. maybe. but chicks still dig ironed more than rumpled. in fact one of the young guys in my office never irons his shirts. I keep thinking "he should iron his shirt". but i'm not sure if it's conditioning or actual preference. he also doesn't have the hems on his pants done properly. I gave him the double sided interface tip...]