“Gentlemen, your jacket matches your pants.”

Reason number 5,382 why I love my husband and find him hilarious: He helped engineer a Top Secret Suit Day at his very dressed-down workplace yesterday, wherein a select number of covert operatives would show up to work dressed, for absolutely no reason whatsoever, to the monkey-suit nines.

Hi! I'm pretending to be an actual businessperson!

I can't help but find something incredibly endearing about his excitement over what is for many daily, ritualized drudgery. Wearing a suit to work! For fun! As a joke! Whee!

In some way or other this serves to outline for me an aspect of many men I know that I truly adore. There's something at the core of contemporary manhood -- if I may be so bold as to make wild, foundationless generalizations based on gender -- that calls to mind the bounding, unaffected enthusiasm of a well-trained Golden Retriever. There is, I think, something very central to the humanity of my closest male friends that is absolutely guileless, unassuming, and unencumbered by calculation or deceit. Perhaps these traits are just specific to the people I choose to let into my life, but still I think there might be something to it, broadly speaking, that relates to how men grow into men -- something that differs from how women become women.

Anyway, the Secret Suit Day was a huge, rousing success, and so last night Jamie babbled eagerly to me about other ideas he and his cohorts had to push the Businesswear envelope. “We were talking about, like, wearing pyjamas! But just pyjama bottoms -- like, the Old Skool Dad kind!” he effused.

I sat there nodding and laughing, wondering at his genuine, infectious excitement. And then, in one swift movement, he leaned close enough for me to feel his breath pulsing lightly on my neck, and began to gently lap at my cheek with his broad, slobbery tongue.

PS: Have you MamaPop-ed lately? C'mon! I'm workin' my ass off, people!

Comments

[Kyla]

What a rebel! *lol*

[slouching mom]

I think your wild generalizations about men are so true and hold as well for boys. There is a beautiful, endearing naivete and innocence in both my boys. Whereas: I don't think girls and naivete have ever laid eyes on one another, even prenatally.

[julia]

So damn cute. You know, that kind of fun-time-having (heh) is the one thing I miss about working in an office.

[Maria]

And he looks handsome too.

I hope you are going to share his other rebel successes.

[BaltimoreGal]

That's so cute. If he does the pj bottoms, with the plain white tee and moccasins, many women at his work will have "old school dad flashbacks."

Having no husband, I can only submit my brother (also my house-mate). He is very excited about wearing his Green Lantern shirt tomorrow because it will be multi-purpose- holiday and pleasure! Yes, it has been confirmed that we are genetically related. It's a w i d e gene pool.

But I totally get what you mean about that "bad boy" eagerness and excitement men get sometimes- it reminds me of the A-Team. "I love it when a plan comes together."

[Tere]

I understand what you mean by "unencumbered by calculation or deceit", because Ben is so guileless sometimes that I think he's trying to trick me, and I wonder what evil is lurking underneath.

This is due to the shitheads who preceded him, which, I know, I have to keep trauma separate from reality.

But the existence of these shitheads tells me that not every guy (possibly not many?) possesses such a wonderful characteristic.

[Joy]

I heart Jamie. I don't know if there's a new breed of male about, as you described--although now I think about it, my own man's goofiness is a thing to behold at times--but Jamie is just purely infectious. Period.

[ozma]

I remember my dad doing fun pranks at work with his friends. I was wondering if those days were gone--that would not make sense at my job or husband's job.

So glad to see the whimsical spirit is still there in the world.

I love golden retrievers and now I'm wishing I had more golden retriever people in my life. Where can I find these golden retriever people. More to the point, what job can I get with such people?

[ozma]

P.S. Dude not only do I mamapop but you are totally shaping my pop culture experience.

[Katie Kat]

Here's why my hubby rocks the house:

The other day he was lying in bed (baby was up and I was trying to curtail her messings about)... I told him I loved him, and he responded "I love you too, baby." Then... farted. I was all "Man, if that isn't love, I don't know what is. You are SO hot." He said "that's my mating call darlin'". What a man...

[Thomas]

That's really great. We used to do something similar at my dress code free workplace as a parody of "casual fridays."

Eventually, though it was banned by the boss because, over the course of several months, it got to be a bigger deal. By the twelfth week some people were renting tuxedos w/ tails and I once wore my kilt.

[Antonia]

A friend of mine used to work at the BBC and told me about his colleagues: specifically, a small department of men who were reprimanded for dressing like utterly scruffy bastards.

They all came in the next day dressed impeccably. Savile Row suits; spats; waistcoats; hats; watch chains; matching socks and handkerchiefs: the works. It went down so well, they've done it every day, ever since, and have a new reputation for being the BBC's most dapper department.

One of them also has his wife and children line up by the door and salute him as he leaves in the morning. He says it does wonders for morale.

[Andrea]

Growing up with 3 brothers, and having 3 sons (plus 1 daughter) I totally applaud you for so eloquently putting into prose what I have myself been unable to. I was hoping for a girl this last pregnancy to even things out, and have a greater chance of a relationship with at least one daughter lol, should one go awry, but could not explain my real lack of disappointment when I heard Boy. Now I know why!

[Corina]

I have to say...wearing a suit, when you don't ordinarily bother to try too hard, usually tells everyone in the office...." I HAVE A JOB INTERVIEW!" without you opening your mouth ;-) .