Today marks my 19th day as a wife.

I was married Aug. 27 to my boyfriend of more than seven years.

After more than seven years of dating, you would think there would be little adjustment necessary. In many ways, that’s been true.

In fact, it seems like we’re still in a long-distance relationship right now. He works for the state and travels often for his job. Usually he’s gone two weeks a month and is home during the weekends.

For some reason, his bosses scheduled him for basically two straight months of out-of-town work now that we’re married. He’ll be home one week in September and October.

With so little time together, we have still managed to learn a few things we’ll need to adjust to in our marriage:

uHe never closes the curtains after taking a shower.

uHe loves to cook. He’ll spend hours working on a meal, messing up eight or nine dishes in the process. Sometimes I eat my meal out of the pan I cook it in. This is a habit left over from my days without a dishwasher.

uHe loves football. And baseball. And basketball. And golf. And tennis. I call uniforms “outfits” and usually fall asleep during games when we watch at home. (In all fairness to me, he can watch hours of sports.)

I’m not sure how he feels, but to be honest, I was expecting much worse. I’ve heard horror stories from my friends about post-marriage discoveries.

One friend, who’d been dating her husband for a decade, found out that he liked to wash his feet in the sink every night before he got in bed. (Why not use the tub?)

Another’s husband liked to hang everything — pictures, mirrors, decorations — in line with the top of the door frame because it was easiest.

This week, I’ll be eating microwave dinners or bowls of cereal, depending on how lazy I’m feeling, and missing my new husband, even if he is the reason our shower curtain will mildew by Christmas.

Katie McDowell is the lifestyles editor for the Shelby County Reporter. She can be reached at 669-3131 ext. 19 or by email at katie.mcdowell@shelbycountyreporter.com.