The following is a conversation with my husband Leif. We were driving home from somewhere, and the car is definitely the place where all important conversations take place and difficult decisions are made.

“Someone asked why I wasn’t planning to run for elected office in the near future. I told him that my husband didn’t want me to.”

“Yeah?” He asked with an eyebrow slightly raised. “What did he say?”

“Something along the lines of ‘was I going to let that stop me?’”

“And you said…” The eyebrow shifted up even higher.

“I said of course it would stop me. Just like if you wanted to make a major career change that disrupted our entire life together, not to mention the effect on our kids, I would never expect you to go ahead with it if I weren’t completely on board.”

“So you don’t think I should quit my job and go to seminary and become a pastor?”

“Um…no. I didn’t marry a pastor, I married a software engineer.”

“So what do you have against pastors?”

“Nothing. I just don’t want to be married to one.”

“Well I don’t want to go to seminary anyway.”

“I know! So it’s totally different, because I actually want to run for Senate.”

That’s when I got the my-wife-is-ridiculous-but-adorable-so-I-love-her-quirks look.

“What?” I asked incredulously. “I could totally run for Senate. If I had a supportive husband, that is.” I tried my best to glower. I don’t think it worked very well.

“Next time someone asks you why you let your husband boss you around, just tell them it’s because I beat you.”

“You only beat me because you’re crazy good at games and never let me win.”

“If you played more, you’d get better at them and then maybe you’d really win.”

“I would, but I hate to lose.”

“And you want to run for Senate?”

“Completely different. I wouldn’t LOSE that!”

A clucked tongue and “um-hmm.” was all I got in reply.

“Well I wouldn’t.”

“Jennifer, no one’s going to let you win a Senate race.”

“You’re just scared I’ll lose and be an impossible biotchay to live with.”

“Damn straight.”

“You may have a point.”

After a moment or two of pondering, I only had one more thought to add.

“Except I wouldn’t lose.”

And then my smartypants hubby did the only thing he could to get out of his wife pestering him. He said, “I have no doubt you wouldn’t lose. But we’d miss you too much if you were a Senator.”

It’s true, you know. If I were a Senator, Leif might actually have to learn to do laundry. The horror!

“Well I’m still not ruling it out.”

And that’s when we got home and saw the neighbors struggling to bring in a new crib. Apparently they’re expecting a little girl in August. And that’s when my uterus throbbed and I thought about having another baby in a couple of years instead of running for Senate.

Except maybe I think I’ll do both.