Pressure

I have never met anybody who reacts better under pressure than Jeremy.

He keeps his temper beautifully.

You really have to push him to make him angry, and even then it doesn't last longer than about 3 seconds.

It's a good thing that Jeremy is this way since I cannot handle him being mad at me. On those rare occasions when I have pushed Jeremy beyond his limit, and I experience those three seconds of Jeremy Wrath, it seems that those three seconds are the worst three seconds of my life, and I wonder if I have ruined everything forever, and I crumpled into an emotional heap of inconsolable female hormones, and Jeremy is the one who ends up apologizing.

It's rather sad that I allow this, but alas, we're in a 10-year groove, and it seems to work for us.

We've been studying Mars in school, and we have learned that the largest volcano in the solar system is on Mars (fourteen miles high). It's called Olympus Mons. If that thing were to blow, we'd feel it on Earth, as little particles would descend on our atmosphere, burning up and giving us a great light show. Maybe we'd even have some little Mars bits hit the Earth, or better yet, large chunks of the planet, sending us into a world-wide panic.

I don't know what would have to happen for Olympus Mons to actually explode, but it's one of those mystical sleeping giants that makes us amateur astronomers quiver in our boots. I can imagine that the pressure would have to build for some time, and finally, after centuries of all that magma swirling and undulating under the Martian surface, it would accumulate enough force to blow the entirety of Mars apart.

In like manner, Jeremy has, these last two weeks, been working 12-14 hour days. He has a deadline of Wednesday to finish the work of many (those who were laid off, and those who quit), and I can feel the pressure building. I feel sorry for the poor sap who is there when Mount St. Jeremy explodes.

It's getting closer...just this morning, another project was dumped on his desk that has to be done TODAY.

Makes me laugh a little inside (not at Jeremy, of course).

Of course, the tide is stemmed at night when he can relax on the couch with "White Collar," and other equally silly shows that Jeremy and I have a penchant for.

So maybe we have a few more millenia before Jeremy blows the solar system apart. Maybe he'll go dormant altogether.

That would be good, I guess, but part of me would be disappointed not to see the explosion in all its splendor.

As long as it's not directed at me, anyway.