Opposites Attract - Like Moths To A Flame

I know I have a blog, but I am actually a very private person. I used to be excruciatingly shy, but I’ve learned to overcome it in most (most) situations. My husband Chuck (Wonder Hubby/BFF/Hero) is exceptionally outgoing and at ease in nearly any social situation. It’s not so much a case of opposites attracting, as it is we complement each other. We have an enormous amount in common (most happily, a shared sense of humor) and really only one taboo topic - taxes, of all things.

But Chuck has one less than charming, occasionally startling reflex, which comes smack dab up against my preference for privacy. He has described it as “Self-Disclosure Tourette’s”! We mean no disrespect to folks who suffer from the actual Tourette’s Syndrome, but there’s no other way to capture the nearly uncontrollable reflex Chuck has to share! Sometimes I can see or, more accurately, sense it coming on - kind of like how animals know when earthquakes are coming. If I’m within nudging distance, I can often give him a little warning signal. But occasionally I find myself flailing about like The Robot on television’s Lost In Space: “Danger! Danger Will Robinson!!!” Sometimes not even frantic robot waving or an elbow to the ribs can halt Chuck’s progress and my subsequent desire for the earth to swallow me up, as the embarrassing personal tidbit tumbles from his lips!

Ironically, I have managed to embarrass him only once - and I wasn’t even trying. It was silly. It was ages ago, long before we were married. We were driving around Harvard Square in Cambridge one evening, Chuck at the wheel. For some reason (which made perfect, logical sense at the time) I pretended to be a moth clinging onto the passenger window. We were driving by folks crowded onto sidewalks and at crosswalks, but I swear no one even noticed me! Chuck was somewhere between mortified and appalled. I still don’t know what it was about my moth imitation that left him aghast. And I have to admit it took me awhile to stop doing it. His response was just so much fun.

Uh oh...

Maybe my throat clearing, high-signing and shin kicking contributes to Chuck’s “Self-Disclosure Tourette’s”. Does this mean I should develop nerves of steel? Or maybe I need to fight fire with fire? I believe I’m beginning to feel the need to channel a moth...