Moderate Maintenance ...

Sunflower and I compared notes about low-maintenance guys the other day during a thoroughly delightful meetup (we should do more of this, dearie!). By low-maintenance, we mean beings that are easily pleased by the very basic things in life.

One guy dislikes driving (even though he has a car and is a careful driver) and prefers to take public transportation everywhere. And I mean, everywhere. Another dude doesn't see any reason to upgrade from his mattress on the floor to an honest-to-goodness bed. And one fellow sees nothing wrong in recycling flowers used in a friend's wedding as a gift to his girlfriend.

Somehow, some way or the other, these guys found themselves perfectly matched to their life partners.

The first guy's girl is someone who shares his passion in public transportation. She herself has a car but prefers to take the bus or lrt. When he suggests that he'll pick her up and drive her to a nice place, she would pause thoughtfully and say, "Why don't we take the bus instead?" The guy thought he had died and gone to heaven.

The second guy's fiancee doesn't possess a bed. Like him, she sleeps on a mattress on the floor. When they got married, they didn't get a bed. "I have a mattress, he has a mattress - we'll just join the mattresses together and sleep on them. Easy peasy!" she said cheerfully.

And the last guy's wife was very touched by the recycled flowers. "You must understand, he actually took the trouble to handpick those flowers from me. I love them!"

Surely God must have had a hand in bringing these unique individuals together.

As for Sunflower and me, let's just say that you wouldn't catch us uttering such things. We used to think that we were low maintenance. Well, that was until we met those women mentioned above. I guess the accurate terminology to use in our case would be moderate maintenance.

Moderate maintenance women:

• don't mind taking public transportation but only when necessary and for practical reasons like avoiding jams and such. But whenever possible, we prefer to drive/be driven everywhere.


• would very much prefer first-hand flowers. Period.


• prefer sleeping on a bed. Mattresses are fine on a temporary basis. Beds, however, give a sense of bonding and rootedness with our bedrooms.

So, any other moderate maintenance beings out there? We could form a group on Facebook, you know