Another thing you may not know about Lee

This is the first installment in the bi-whenever-we-feel-like-posting-something series "Another thing you may not know about Lee/Panagiota." Something to bring you closer to us.

Lee and I just had an interesting conversation about this blog. I won't bore you with all the details, but basically the conversation ended with him telling me about how Eric recently told him that he doesn't need to post something on the blog every day. And that got me to thinking about Lee's need to have a "project" at all times. Now, I was under the impression that when people talked about Lee's "projects" they knew that the word "project" is really code for "obsession". The thing is, Lee always has to have an object or a goal. Basically something to focus on that has a reward at the end. He becomes completely consumed by his project. Generally, only I see the depth of these obsessions, but if you think back really hard, many of you will be able to remember hearing about, or maybe even being sucked into, some of these.

Some examples:

The time he was convinced he should quit his job and open up a crepe and Belgian fries restaurant. Most of you only know about this one from Lee talking about it every now and then. But what you may not know about is the full menu he created, complete with prices. The hours spent brainstorming about names for the restaurant. Scouting locations. The tomes on restaurant management he bought. Searching online for restaurants for sale in every possible city he might be able to stomach living in. The entire weekends spent making, and eating, crepes and fries and mayonnaise sauces. The hours spent coming up with restaurant layouts on the computer. Searching online for restaurant equipment. The hours-long conversations on whether to buy or lease the equipment. Asking the crepe guy down the street what kind of equipment he used, the model number, whether it was gas or electric and how it handled. Figuring out how many employees he would need. What time of year would be the best time to take a vacation. How many hours a day he would be able to spend with his kids. I can go on and on and on.

The desire to buy a house. The house-buying obsession surfaces every six months or so. Now don't get me wrong, I would love to buy a home as soon as possible. And I love this about Lee, because I don't like looking at housing listings and he is really good it at. The problem is that we are still deciding between countries at the moment, and we can't decide on a city until we do that. The other problem is that once Lee starts looking at properties, it spirals out of countrol. Before you know it, he's drawing up renovation plans, picking carpets, researching schools. And all this based on an ad for the property on the internet. Before we've even seen the property. Before we've even talked about the property. And if the property is in another country? He is one click away from buying a plane ticket for a one-night stay wherever, even if it is an 8-hour flight.

Learning how to play bridge. I won't even get into this one. Just ask to see the bridge paraphenalia the next time you come over. On second thought, don't. I don't want this particular obsession to flare up again.

Being best man at Mike's wedding. This project was a really good thing. Lee has amazing friends whom he adores and he is always so excited and genuinely thrilled when good things happen for them. To prepare for being Mike's best man, Lee bought books on how to write a speech. He bought books on how to be a best man. He spent hours planning the bachelor party. He spent days obsessing about every detail. He packed and repacked his "best man emergency kit", which included tissues, aspirin, band-aids, cologne, deodorant, a comb, extra razors, buttons, a sewing kit and a snack. The sewing kit especially came in handy when a friend of Mike and Jill's who was helping reposition the lights split his pants and The Best Man swooped in and sewed it right up. Just kidding; Lee was way too nervous to sew.

Civilisation. I. Hate. This. Game. When Lee started playing it again about a year and a half ago, he sat down at the computer as soon as he got home each night and as soon as he got up on the weekends and he didn't move. Sometimes staying up all night. I'm not exaggerating in the slightest. He even got into a huge fight with me one day when I made him stop and go outside with me for 10 minutes. He was quite literally going into withdrawal. It's amazing we got married after this fiasco.

The Playstation. I remember being over at Eric and Kathryn's around the time Lee was thinking about buying a Playstation. Lee brought it up to see what people thought and Carrie (of Bill and Carrie fame) said "If Bill has time to play with Playstation, Bill has time to play with Carrie". What a wise woman. Lee went ahead and bought the Playstation about a week before the first anniversary of our first date, which fell on a Saturday. Lee was living in the studio in Turtle Bay at the time. The week leading up to our anniversay he played Playstation obsessively, staying up until the wee hours of the morning. I would wake up periodically and yell at him to turn it off so that I could sleep, but to no avail. I can no longer hear the words "In a minute" without cringing. The worst was that he spent the entire day of our anniversary in front of the Playstation and I remember waking up at 5 in the morning and yelling at him to turn it off. His response to why we didn't do anything for our anniversary? "I didn't want to do something that I would have to top next year".

The blog. I love the blog. Lee is such an incredible writer. He is so witty and interesting. And it's so much fun to do. But Obsessive Lee sits at the blog for 6 hours at a time during the weekend. I'm not exaggerating. It wouldn't be such a problem if he wasn't working such long hours and I got to see him every once in a while. I know he needs to decompress, but doesn't his ass get numb just sitting there?

Some of the obsessions are good. Some of the obsessions are bad. The one thing they have in common, is that they all get taken a bit too far. But in the end, it all works out. After all, Lee wouldn't be himself without a project or two.