It's a cute bathroom. Yes, I said cute. Not a word you hear many men using. Mr. DeRosa loves the food at Indulge Cupcakes, but I doubt you'll hear him (or any man) saying the bathrooms are cute. I doubt there are few males that would actually use the term cute in any descriptive sense. As I was admiring the exposed brick and deep, warm colors of the potty-room, I began thinking how it can be both easy and difficult being a male. There are so many expectations, yet so many uncomplicated things involving manhood.

There are the obvious straight-forward topics of how being a guy has its advantages. For example: peeing standing up, burping and farting is expected, body hair not an issue, body weight not an issue (Irritating fact: sitcoms have beer-belly husbands and hot wives), and the easiest one: not having to endure the physical aspects of pregnancy. Blah, blah, blah we've heard it all. Men have it SO easy, right?

Why is it cheaper for a man to get a haircut than a woman? I'm pretty sure we are washed with the same shampoo, sit in the same chair, use the same cape, take the same amount of time (for basic cuts), use the same scissors and possibly even the same number of snips with those scissors. Why is it also cheaper to dry clean a man's shirt than it is a woman's shirt? That leads me to a different question: Why don't dry cleaners list their prices? I think they make up a different price every time I go in¬" just whatever they feel like charging me that day. I'm simply baffled.

Yet, on the other hand, I think existing as a male has a lifelong challenge of what it means to be considered a man.Let me explain: Women have a right of passage into womanhood. It's called menstruation. You have your period, and now you are able to have babies. You grow boobs to feed your babies; and you grow hips to carry them on. You are now a woman, and you now know your job that human nature and science has given you: to reproduce. What do men have? A wet dream? So, they can emit sperm and have an orgasm, and potentially help make a baby. This by no means guides them to what they were meant to do in life. Work? Provide for your family? Fight fires? Save lives? Build buildings? Eat an entire giant Cloverleaf pizza all by yourself?

Men never really have a clear right of passage into manhood. Thus leaving them to always have to prove themselves as men. Who can drink the most beer, make the most money, drive the fastest car, have the louder stereo, own the bigger HD plasma TV, biggest house, biggest barbeque (in Texas, anyway), sexier wife, loudest/highest/most obnoxious diesel truck (short man/small penis syndrome), etc. You know, each man has his own idea of what exactly is going to prove he is a man. It all must be incredibly difficult: The never-ending search for inner-security. I'm sure no average male would outright admit that I am right, but of course, an average real man's would.

So as I wash my hands with the awesome Bath and Body Works soap Jen has put in the Indulge bathroom, I remember the saying at our house: Mr. DeRosa is definitely a man. He's the man of our house. He wears the pants in the family, that's for sure. But it's me who tells him which pants to wear.¬" Steph DeRosa