I do hereby recommend that everyone be required to take one really long-ass road trip with one's new spouse within the first few months of getting married. This will be a perfect test of compatibility and tolerance for the long haul (as it were) of the union as a whole, right there in the microcosm where no matter where you go, there are a dozen McDonald's and nothing decent to eat. Otto and I seem to have cleared this hurdle without much trouble, although it was certainly an experience to remember. * * * * * When I commented to Otto that his car was getting really good mileage because I...
Things you cannot put on a moving truck: Detergents, aerosols, propane, live animals. Things I can stuff into Otto's car, should I so desire: Detergents and aerosols. Things I would like to take to Georgia with me, because I PAID MONEY FOR THAT, DAMMIT, which are rather large to take in the car given everything else we have: The propane tank on my grill. Solution: The propane tank has got to be nearly empty... let's just leave the grill running until it's empty, and then the movers will be willing to put it on the truck! Hey, guess what! I think I must've had the propane tank filled at some...
We had no idea what time Otto was coming today, due to a confluence of events wherein he had to make several unplanned-for detours. (One of them was due to Audrey---the name Otto has decided to give the new GPS unit---failing to predict that there is traffic in New York City. GO FIGURE.) As of our last check-in call, we figured he wouldn't arrive until after the kids were in bed. So when he pulled up while the kids were still hanging up their towels and getting into their jammies and screeching and dancing and generally being spazzy, they didn't even notice. This gave me plenty of time to...
Dear Otto, Tomorrow we have been married for one whole month! I can hardly believe it. So far our marriage is progressing amazingly; we've not had a single argument and finally living together hasn't brought any big changes or unexpected surprises. Oh. Wait. That's because we haven't actually lived together, yet. My bad. We spend several hours every day on the phone, and several hours instant messaging online, just like we used to do before we got hitched. This is totally easy! Why didn't we do this earlier? It's been a wild ride these last couple of weeks, but now we're about to live not...
Tonight on the phone while discussing the whole Housing Situation (it now merits capitalization, and in a couple more weeks, I'll be shouting in all caps, LUCKY YOU), Otto said this: "I'm torn, here, because I'm trying to be the good husband and---" There was more, but I stopped listening, because he'd just said he was trying to be a good husband and I was wondering why he used that particular word. And then I remembered it's because HEY, HE'S MY HUSBAND! How did that happen? Oh, right, that happened about nine days ago and now I have a husband. Nifty. Of course, we tend to be the veritable...
Sure, there's the small matter of how I don't even get to LIVE with my HUSBAND just yet, but still. The perks are amazing. Why, I just checked and the last three posts got a zillion more comments than usual. And my goodness, what comments they are! My swelled head barely fits through the doorway anymore, and tomorrow I shall sit and cry when this post doesn't get over a hundred comments telling me how pretty I am. Heh. Also, today I got a spammy "I love your website and want you to promote mine" email from someone who---in all seriousness, I think---addressed me as "Mrs. Otto." That made me...
I know I'm not southern yet... heck, once I'm down there, I know that folks will only be too happy to remind me that I am just a YANKEE in their midst, but I feel a Y'ALL comin' on and it needs to be allowed. Y'all, words cannot do this whole wedding thing justice. Cannot. That doesn't mean I won't TRY, but I'm just SAYING. I will not be able to capture even a tenth of it all, not even if I allow myself to be as cheesy as possible. It can't be done. Because on the one hand it was enormous and huge and now things are DIFFERENT and on the other hand it was so much just what was happening in...
(I wrote this ahead of time and set it to post at midnight, lest you have the urge to come yell at me for posting on my wedding day.) I'm ready to do this thing. I've got something old. And something new. Something borrowed. And something blue. And I also have this. (I'll be back Monday as Mrs. Otto. Maybe even with pictures.)
Almost eighteen years ago I sat down in an auditorium next to a fellow eighteen- year-old who had dark hair, bright blue eyes, an earring (oh, a bad boy!) and an attitude almost as big as my own. I immediately set out to make him fall in love with me, but he was willful, you see. He found me amusing. He liked me. But he would not bend. (Okay, he was dating someone else. Details.) I told him we would end up together. He would laugh. Regardless, that was the beginning of a friendship that survived through our other relationships and our various moves around the country, and he still loves to...
