Opposites attracted

J and I are essentially opposites; I'm a night person, he is a morning one.  We don't even agree on strawberry or grape jelly on a peanut butter sandwich.  This works great for us as I remind him to loosen up a bit and he reminds me not to be so wild.  I don't understand his obsession with soccer and I don't bother to ask him to go shopping with me.  We don't have to see eye to eye on everything and that's what keeps our relationship interesting.  I always remind him of "the big picture".  We get stuck on the little details and making our point of view come across that it is easy to lose sight of what really matters.

We both agree that family is what matters most and it can be all taken away in a heart beat.  He has lost a lot of his family over the years and it has affected me dearly, as well.  Everyone says he is just like his father but I will never know, as he passed away when he was 5.  He has a wonderful step father and even though they are conservatives and we are liberal; we don't bring up politics or religion at the dinner table.  We prefer to keep the good memories of great food, stories and laughter.  

Life would be boring if we were all the same and as long as there is love there will always be family.  Sometimes, I don't know how me and my sisters can be related.  Now I am related to a man who is my "better half".

Mandatory Date Night

You might be saying to yourself, "well date nights shouldn't mandatory, it should come naturally", and to that I say "it's more complicated than that." Yes, during the courtship portion of any relationship you'll generally find yourself wined, dined and wooed often, but what happens when years start passing by? I'll tell you what has happened in my situation. While the love is strong, and the romance is always there, the date nights have dwindled as time has gone by. I feel it's only natural to find yourself in the daily grind, busy with work, house chores, projects, family get-togethers that before you know it you let weeks pass by without planning out a special time for you and your hubby (or long time partner). Before we were able to buy the house we currently have the everyday stress of work and responsibility was weighing me down. I was having a hard time sleeping and a few times I just would start to break down and cry. Even though I am a natural born crier it was obvious I needed a small escape. One week without me bringing it up Brian took me on a great getaway, and even though it was just a couple of days I'll never forget it. So what did Brian do? He told me to take a Friday off of work, and that Friday night we checked in at Malibu Country Inn. To our luck they upgraded us to a newer, recently renovated room. It had its own little deck with spa and the room was cute enough. The thing I liked the most about the place was that it was walking distance from Westward Beach. We got there just in time for sunset and we just sat on the beach and watched the sun go down and the waves hit the the shore. It wasn't crowded at the beach and with all that quietness I was able to just truly enjoy the beauty of everything and focus on Brian and me. Afterwards we went down the street to Zuma Sushi, and to our luck there were outdoor seats open. The air was cool, the stars were out, we ate some of the best sushi I have ever had and just talked and laughed for quite awhile. The next day we went hiking at the Los Liones Trail to Parker Mesa. The weather was perfect and the view at the top was gorgeous. After the weekend was over I felt refreshed in love and in life. It's often hard to find time to focus on the things you love the most and enjoy the God-given beauty of the world, but we just have to make time. It's already the middle of June and I swear that I was looking at January on the calendar just last week. I don't want to take life for granted or the love I have been given. So Brian and I have a promise that every so often we take turns planning a special thing, small experiences that are new to us or old ones we just love to do together. I know as long as we keep that up our relationship will be strong for it.

Of Buns and Ovens

Nope not pregnant. Didn't mean to get you all excited. And no pregnancy isn't overwhelmingly on my brain. Neither is finding a house, which it had been for so long.  Instead we decided to focus on becoming debt free, so I took a good chunk out of the nest egg and put it towards our debts: car debt, credit card debt, woosh! vanished. Now we just have to conquer our student loans and look toward recovering that bit of nest egg while we consider where to build said nest.

We've been talking a lot about where we would like to see ourselves in five to ten years, and we both agree that if possible, we would like to be able to work part time only, and lead a slightly slower paced life focusing on personal projects that make us happy. This is on the tail of a rather dramatic and potentially traumatic (or amazing) patch of rough water in my office. While the drama does not directly involve me, it could potentially change my life for the better or the worse in the next month or so.  Insecurity is dangerous place to totter.

We've been talking a lot to my brother about financial issues etcetera. My brother, who makes three times more money than hubby and I, yet is 5 times more likely to have to borrow money, feels he is in a good position to tell us what we should be doing and why what we are doing is stupid... In any event, he has a beautiful new home with a pool, somewhere around the armpit of the golden coast and we in turn weigh our options. Because while 10 times the space we live in filled with every comfort a young couple could desire is tempting. Being able to walk to the beach, makes us pretty darn spoiled. As does the wonderfully breezy rarely sweltering climate, and access to food and culture and art within walking distance. Would we like a yard and a space that feels more like a home than a "place we stay"? Yes, absolutely. But we don't have school aged kids to think of in terms of space and convenience. Nor are we particularly invested in any one area. And in August, my brothers Mc Mansion will be his only respite from the Mc Oven of the Inland Empire.

We've actually been considering saving up and buying a hippie farm somewhere near Santa Barbara. We'd purchase the land outright and basically create our own community of homes filled with neighbors we want to spend the rest of our life sharing coffee and wine with. This is not simply the dream, this is the goal for the next ten years. We'd have to consider the specifics of where so that we can financially survive while still having the conveniences and luxuries we need.

And on to that bun portion of this rhapsody or diatribe, as you will...Have you seen the movie Idiocracy? If you haven't please rent it prior to reading this. Hubby was recently talking to an old friend from high school, who hadn't done much since then. No great goals, no grand ideas, a few stints in jail perhaps. Basically the only thing this person had done with his life is breed. Please forgive this next judgmental assertion: When I look at the breeders in my life, those who's goal is to personally "fill the earth and subdue it" 99% have little to no motivation, education, or vision.  Its like the only mark they plan to leave behind when they die, is a long line of offspring. This in itself would not be so bad, if the intellectuals I know were also breeders. Unfortunately most of them are too busy pursuing life's treasures to treasure the life they could bring into it. The slippery slope of Idiocracy is that world is eventually populated by the lowest common denominator of humanity. This premise feels very... prophetic these days. So we have decided, we probably really need to have at least one kid. Of course we can change our mind tomorrow, but lately this has been the conclusion.

It isn't that we're exactly trying to have kids, but we've switched our perspective to not actively trying not to, if that makes sense. The good little former health educator in me, knows exactly what should be done to not get pregnant. So playing fast and loose (wow, now that's a gross pun) is a huge step for us in an effort to save humanity from its otherwise impending doom. At this point if we get pregnant it is neither on accident, or on purpose, it simply is. This is basically procreation Russian Roulette.

Its nearly our one year anniversary.  No one was kidding that time starts flying. I can't believe it. I still feel so much like a newly wed, only now I can offer sagely advice. I think the the strangest part has been my shift in perception. I am admittedly a perfectionist, and was therefore disappointed that my wedding wasn't as perfect as I would have liked. I tend to invest a lot of myself in the things I put my name on, and expect myself to accomplish the impossible. For some people my wedding was just that. My mom reminisces all the time about it being the most beautiful wedding she had ever attended, but then again, she's my mom. I think I did the best I could for spending as little as I spent. But the downside of wedding season is you cannot help but compare what you accomplished to what others did. I know my particular mental issues left me hyper critical of everything that went wrong-- which there were so few and so many things all at once.

I didn't dislike my wedding, I just left it a bit unfulfilled. Maybe because it took me months to unwind afterwards. Maybe because I was hypersensitive to what I wanted that was missing or changed out of necessity.  Maybe because it didn't live up to being the "Best Day of My life" because although it was a beautiful day and I love my husband very much, I don't define myself by being married. However, eleven months into being married,  I find myself thinking back on the day with more rose colored hues than I did 11, 6, or even 3 months ago. Almost a year into wedded life and the stress of throwing a wedding is finally diminishing and I can appreciate the day for what it was. I appreciate it for the simplicity and meaning and time spent with those I love the most. I appreciate my two amazing bachelorette parties thrown by my two amazing maids of honor. I appreciate the giant slumber party in the venue the night before that culminated with me and my besty blowing bubbles and singing "Somewhere Out There" and the late night BBQ. I appreciate the early mornings with my mother watching the fog roll out of the valley below us, and the really bad karaoke that followed the end of the reception. I appreciate the contentment in my father's face and the light in my hubby's eyes when he saw me. A year after my wedding, I am beginning to fall in love with it. Perhaps five years down the road I will remember it as the best day of my life.

I guess the theme if this blog today is that life is anything but certain. Certainty comes when life is in the past. Looking back at choices, our visions is 20/20. But looking forward it always feels so hazy. For the moment, there is the semblance of contentment before the next big wave washes me out to sea or carries me back to the shore.