The Bubba's first sweater

Sometimes differences in the types of "common sense" that you learn growing up in different places make themselves apparent. Justin grew up in Houston and I grew up in Vermont. Two very different climates have caused us to bring very different knowledge to our relationship.

For instance, I know that in the winter if the thermostat is above 60 degrees you will pay extremely high heating bills. Justin knows that in the summer if the thermostat is below 78 then you will pay extremely high heating bills. When we first got together we thought our respective temperatures of 60 and 78 were year round. I wanted the AC set at 60 in the summer and he wanted the heat at 78 in the winter. This is an instance in which our differences in knowledge are complimentary and we trust eachother in our respective seasons.

Today I discovered a difference in knowledge that is just plain stupid.

So a week or so ago, I mentioned that my mother was hassling me to return a sweater that she had left at our house. This morning, I discovered that Justin washed my mother's cashmere sweater. I was pretty freaked out. My mother has been hassling me about this sweater for months- her absolute favorite Cashmere sweater that she can't believe she left at our house- she says she is using the sweater to hold me hostage- saying things like she has found some really cool stuff she wants to buy for me, but won't until I send her the sweater. Every email correspondence with her is laced with "And what of my sweater".

So, I kind of freaked out- "Justin, what on earth led you to believe you could wash and dry this sweater?"

"I just did some laundry" he replied- fair enough maybe, but-

"In the future could you remember to ONLY wash cotton sweaters?" I asked

"We don't have sweaters in Houston" he replied.

Now this is just stupid. I can't wait until his mother reads this, because I am 100% sure that even though she was raised in a warm climate, she knows that you don't wash cashmere! Indeed, knowing that sweaters shrink when you wash them is not something that only us yankees learn. It is basic laundry knowledge.

Anyways, I know he thought he was doing the right thing by doing the laundry. But now I have to explain to my mother that the Houstonian who grew up without sweaters (yeah, right) shrank her beloved favorite cashmere sweater.

Well, at least I can say, thanks mom for providing the bubba with its first sweater.