I make more than my husband

Not twice as much, but enough that it's noticeable on the monthly receipts. I get better benefits. I wear suits and hand out business cards. My husband wears pretty much whatever he wants and spends more time with our son than I do. My husband loves his job. On a good day, I don't hate mine. This seems precisely the reverse of the usual pattern. And while I don't love my job, I do like being the primary breadwinner. I like the power of it, the affirmation of my worth. I need to make a career change to something that gives me more satisfaction, I know that. But if my salary drops, I also know that I'll miss this feeling.

Bread and Roses

As we go marching, marching, in the beauty of the day,
A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray,
Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,
For the people hear us singing: Bread and Roses! Bread and Roses!

As we go marching, marching, we battle too for men,
For they are women's children, and we mother them again.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses.

As we go marching, marching, unnumbered women dead
Go crying through our singing their ancient call for bread.
Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.
Yes, it is bread we fight for, but we fight for roses too.

As we go marching, marching, we bring the greater days,
The rising of the women means the rising of the race.
No more the drudge and idler, ten that toil where one reposes,
But a sharing of life's glories: Bread and roses, bread and roses.

Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
hearts starve as well as bodies; bread and roses, bread and roses.

Contemporary romance in the sticks

I've been reading several other posts talking about how smart young men really are interested in smart young women, and that's all grand in the urban areas where it's true. Out here in the sticks, though, sisters, it's not the same game. I'm a lawyer, and the young male lawyers my age (early 30s) are almost universally marrying down, either economically or socially and economically. Of the professional men who come to mind who've married in the last year or two, here are the stats:

Groom: Ph.D. Candidate
Bride: Hairdresser and volleyball coach

Groom: Lawyer
Bride: Hairdresser

Groom: Lawyer
Bride: First-grade teacher (quit within 6 months upon getting pregnant)

Groom: Banker
Bride: Student (working on grade school teaching certification)

Groom: Lawyer
Bride: Physical therapist

I wouldn't count out Maureen Dowd's hypothesis: it stands up pretty well out here in flyover land.