We have now been happily married for twenty three years, plus the six years we dated, means we have been together for twenty nine years. That is a long freaking time. I believe the math is right, we started dating on a Friday the 13th, in November of 1987. I just verified, thanks to Google, and November did have a Friday the 13th. Our first date was to the Spinach Festival, which is our hometown's big celebration in the fall. You ask how does a harried fellow like myself latch onto a busty bossy passionate woman like Wife, and it required some expert work that night. First make her relax by showing her off in public, second, separate her from the pack and third, attack in the dark., when in doubt leave hickeys to mark your territory.
If I remember correctly, we went to the Festival, said hi to her folks, then because I had just broken up with a long time girlfriend the week before, I didn't feel like I should be gallivanting around, I wanted to find a nice quiet place to seduce my young (14 at the time) fresh meat (I was only 16, so not that creepy). I suggested we drive around and we ended up in the park. We walked up to the swings, and I started pushing her back and forth. This is innocent fun for her and a way for me to grope the butt as I pushed her back and forth. I don't consider myself such an animal but she always says I ripped her off the swing in mid air and threw her to the ground where I then pounced on her like a puma before she knew what happened. This is how we did our first kiss, I like to think it was romantic and spur of the moment, she said it was a little rape-y. The whole affair left her like Cinderella, losing part of her costume in the dizziest part of the act, which we were able to find the next day.
This is how I knew she liked it, and didn't mind me being rape-y. She called the next day that she lost her earring, and if we could go and look for it. We did and there it was, on the ground where we tore up the grass and the earth as two lost souls found each other. Once you get some Mando on you, I don't wash off, very much like the proverbial herpes, I get in your blood to stay.
Our love would be cemented by too many pizzas at Pizza Hut, which is the place to go when you live in a small town, and then later she would stick her claws in me permanently by getting 'knocked up' right as I was fixing to graduate from UT. Boy popped out nine months later and that maybe changed my trajectory a bit, but Wife has been the perfect Wife for me. I don't think many people could stand my temperament and my moods. I was kind of standoffish back in my 20's when I felt I had to prove myself somehow. I believe I am a much better human now that I have mellowed, maybe a lowered testosterone level has made me less of a dick.
I am proud that Wife has never just sat back and let life happen to her. She has quietly continued her schooling, and she caught up with me a couple years later getting her Bachelor's degree, and then a Master's degree in 2007, right before the big recession. It has taken longer than we both foresaw, but she is finally on pace to maybe even make the kind of money I make, which could send us into a higher tax bracket in a couple years. She is now a Director, but in a school three hours away. We figured she could gain the experience down there, time will pass, quickly as it always does, and eventually she will be able to come back, hopefully to a six figure salary, and with Boy almost done with school, we might finally be able to live like I have always wanted and believed we should be living. Our big house here in Austin, a cabin in the woods next to some waterfront, a Cessna to get around, a new F250 every few years, and a collection of nice watches... these are some of my favorite things (I dream about).
I love you Babe, thanks for being my pain in the ass. You could be out there inflicting your brand of fear and bitchiness on any number of dudes or even chicks, but you chose me. :) Thanks.
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