Wedded Bliss

When I was a kid, I'd visit my grandparents quite often. As much as I loved them, I did notice one thing about them, they argued and screamed a lot. It seemed that they were always shouting across the house at one another. Not in a mean way, but they'd shout none the less. It's how they communicated. Grandma would scream from the kitchen, "Bill, where's the ....fill in the blank.", and gramps would curse and scream back while peeling himself out of his old recliner chair, "It's right where you left it...".

This past two weeks my friend Dennis has been our house guest. You'd think that with a house guest, Mark and I would be on our best behavior. Instead we behaved as if Dennis wasn't even around. That's because Dennis is a close friend, like family, and we allowed ourselves to just be ourselves. One thing Dennis pointed out is that we scream at each other a lot, and he is right. An example of that would be the following exchange.
"Mark, why is the kitchen such a mess?" I yelled.
"I was cooking. You want to eat don't you?" Mark screamed back from another room.
"Well you shouldn't be so lazy, clean up when you're done."
Then quite unlike my grandparents, our loud discussion quickly degenerated.
"I'm not lazy you asshole."
"I'm an asshole? NO, you're the asshole."
"You asshole."
"No, you're an asshole."
"Asshole."
"Asshole."
"Asshole."

I know it sounds horrible, but just for reference, grandpa lived until he was just a couple of weeks shy of 102. Grandma lived into her nineties, and they were married for nearly sixty years. Maybe letting off steam is what kept them going, and if I have inherited my grandparents longevity, I could easily have forty more years of this sweet bliss with Mark.