“The only cockroach in my cupboard!”

My husband is very eloquent, and it’s not uncommon for him to give flamboyant compliments  … especially when he wants something. Hah! Just kidding.

Anyway, one night he was doing the equivalent of “verbal serenading” and started out something like this:

Cockroach cupboard...?

“You’re the only star in my sky…

You’re the only drop in my ocean…

You’re the only sugar in my tea…

You’re the only cockroach in my cupboard! … ”

At first I thought he was teasing me, because that was hardly complimentary.

“What?” I demanded. “What do you mean, a cockroach?! Eww…”

He seemed quite honestly startled by my reaction. “But that’s a good thing!” he protested. “That means you’re the only cockroach in my cupboard!”

It took a lot more explanations, and some time on my part, to figure out why this was a compliment. Apparently it was better having something, even a cockroach, in a cupboard than to have an empty cupboard.

Unlike the U.S., where even one cockroach in a cupboard means a full-blown pest extermination service, the little critters aren’t so rare in other parts of the world. Hence, having just one must mean it’s a pretty special cockroach…

Which is why it was a compliment.

So now he’s the “only cockroach in my cupboard…”