We're Better Together

1. My boss let me have the day off yesterday.
2. Someone invented Kleenex.  I honestly can't tell you how many handkerchiefs I would have needed the past few days if they hadn't.
3. Modern Medicine.  That's pretty much all inclusive.  There are so many things that would have killed us fifty years ago that simply will not kill us now.  Yay for life.

So, as some of you may have noticed, I took yesterday off.  I talked to my boss (me) and my other boss (my wife), and told them it was my second anniversary and how my wife wanted to spend the day with me.  The two of them talked it over and said that I could.  Suckers.

Yep, it was our second anniversary yesterday, which made me think a bunch of stuff.  First off: Two years.  The woman has put up with me for two years.  I've written about this before, so I won't go into detail, but two years is one long ass time to deal with me.  Talk about moxy (from Night at the Museum II), talk about muchness (Alice in Wonderland).  If for no other reason than she can put up with me (and it's not), my wife is amazing.

The day started with, let's say, some difficulties.  Namely, allergies.  I took an allergy pill, but even with the pill, I still thought that I would get dehydrated from blowing my nose, and that my eyes would eventually be swept away by the rivers they were obviously holding back.  I looked like every bit of water in my body was piling up and spilling out of my face.  We'll say it was dodgy.

Well, some of you might not know this, but my wife loves eating out for breakfast.  She likes fast food's fake eggs and diners' quaintness.  We chose Kneaders.  The workers probably thought I had the plague or something, but allowed us to order and didn't complain when we chose a table that was far away from the rest of the customers and mostly out of sight.  They even brought our food to our table.  I think they were afraid I would suddenly explode and they'd have to mop up if I walked around too much.

On the way home we got gas (because we were going to Salt Lake that night) and got The Green Hornet from Redbox (because, with my allergies, we weren't going to do anything else).  While walking from our car to our condo I noticed the wind pick up and watched what looked to be a big cloud of dust come wafting off a big pine tree in front of our house.  Ladies and Gentlemen, I think I'm allergic to pine trees pollinating.  I almost cried.  I was already hurting so much, and I'd just seen my nemesis show its power, and I became afraid.  I knew we had a big night planned, and a little pine tree procreation was not going to stop it from being awesome, so against recommendations on the bottle, I took another half allergy pill and drank lot of water to keep myself from turning into a raisin.  We watched Green Hornet, it was really so-so.  I doubt I'll buy it.

The big plans we had made were going to The Melting Pot for dinner.  It's a place that requires reservations and has a valet.  To my knowledge, I've never used either of those services before last night.  It's a fondue place that is designed to allow people time to sit and talk without the waiter being annoying and while enjoying great food.  It did not disappoint.  Our waiter, Ryan, was great.  He answered all of questions without being snooty and was always quick to refill drinks - just what a waiter should be.  The food was awesome, and my wife and I got a chance to talk.

In our conversation I asked what her favorite part of being married has been (talk about your loaded questions).  She smiled and said there were lots of favorites, one of them being 'cuddling up close.'  It's what normal people call cuddling.  Not sure why we say this.  I pressed her for another favorite, and while she thought I thought of mine, which was that I liked having someone there no matter what happened.  Sure, my wife is beautiful, and fun, and cool, but when it comes right down to it, I know that my wife is going to be there for me, no matter what happens, and that's really what I love most about her.  She then said basically what I had been thinking.  It was nice to know she depended on me too.

Later, we talked about how I want so badly to take her to Switzerland.  I know she would love the food, and the architecture, and the people, and the green grass, and the water (it's seriously everywhere, which for people from the desert, lookss pretty awesome).  After we'd talked about that for a while she looked at me and said, "That's another favorite.  I like sharing experiences with you."  I hadn't thought of it, but I love that too.

I love being married to my wife.  Sure, we're not always in sync, and sure, we don't always agree, but it's so nice when we do that it makes up for when we don't.  In my Marriage and Family Relations class my teacher asked us how we would define a successful marriage.  After some deliberation about happiness, and fulfillment, and time spent together I came to the conclusion that a successful marriage is one where the end product is greater than the some of its parts.  A marriage where each person is lifted because they are married.  And I feel like, at least for the time being, my marriage is a success.  I am a better person because I'm with my wife, and my wife says the same thing, though it's hard for me to believe.  As Jack Johnson would say, "We're better together."

Have a nice day.