The past week at work has been really tough on me. I was the only one in the office while my co-workers attended a six-day conference in DC, and I had two big events to manage while they were gone. I’ve been worn out and run down. I’m ashamed to say that my low point came three nights ago, right before bed. I walked out into the kitchen and caught my husband standing in front of the open refrigerator, drinking directly from the orange juice jug. Not just any orange juice, but my very favorite Tropicana Grovestand orange juice, which I would not have any of after he drank from the jug. An all-out meltdown ensued. My sweet husband just stared at me, in wide-eyed disbelief, while I ran through all the reasons he was “mean” and “selfish” for drinking directly from the jug. I am a mess.
Although I apologized the next morning, I readily admit that I haven’t been *much* easier to live with the past few days. Today I was sitting in a staff meeting, overwhelmed and longing for a vacation, when the UPS man walked in with flowers. The card read, “Meagan- Thank you for working so hard. I’m proud of you. –Tim”
My knight in shining armor rode in (in spirit) and saved the day. Again. With a rose and daisy assortment, nonetheless.
I always enjoy when music parallels life. Any country music (or American Idol) fan would recognize Josh Gracin (not to be confused with Josh Groban, although I love him too. Is he really gay?) Josh is my age. He was a Marine when he tried out for American Idol, and he lived in the neighborhood right next to us on base. He married his high school sweetheart, joined the Marines, and they moved across America to start life together. Anyway, his music reminds me of our own “Marine Corps” life. I can really relate to the lyrics from one of his recent releases.
We headed out to California
Everybody tried to warn us
Said we wouldn’t make it any further
Than that worn out Chevy would
We broke down a time or two
Thought “maybe we didn’t think it through”
We were all we had to turn to
When it wasn’t lookin’ good
Looking back laughing
‘Cause they called us crazy
We were young, we were wild, we were restless
Had to go, had to fly - had to get away
Took a chance on that feelin’
We were loving blind - borderline reckless
We were livin’ for the minute we were spinning in
Maybe we were a lot of things
But we weren't crazy
I was 19 years old when we “headed out to California.” “Everybody” DID try to warn us. As I’m sure you can imagine, everyone around us had an opinion about me (the blushing bride) being just a year out of high school. My dad said he thought Tim would make a great husband… if we’d just wait a few years. My friends were enjoying college life and just couldn’t imagine settling down and committing to a monogamous life-long relationship before they were even old enough to legally purchase alcohol. But, being young a wild, we never gave these naysayers a second thought. We jumped in with both feet and started building a life together. And we were THRILLED. We had no IDEA what we were getting ourselves into (do we ever?). We were young and clueless, but certainly, we weren’t crazy.
And look at us now. He still sends me flowers. Almost five years later (how is that possible?) I look back on five of the sweetest, hardest, funniest years of my life. And I wouldn’t trade even one minute of it. Okay, maybe just the orange juice meltdown.
