Happy Valentine's Day
February 13, 2019
I thought I'd married someone smart, funny, charming and kind. I thought he was just about perfect. Okay, he didn't like chocolate, but we all have a character defect or two, right?
So often we hear, "the wife is the last to know," and it was certainly true in my case. Apparently he was actually a boring person and it took over three years before I had the first inkling that it could be so.
After college, my husband went to an Army Officers' training school. I got to tag along. The hours were not only long but irregular. He would leave the apartment at oh-dark-thirty, as he cheerfully called it. I called it the middle of the night. And I'd have no idea when he would be back.
This was the dark ages, in more than one sense--no cell phones. We were totally out of touch the entire day. I'm sure there was a phone somewhere for life or death emergencies, but it wasn't available to dozens of men wanting tell their wives, "I'll be home in 20 minutes."
At some point, other wives started calling me when it was getting unusually late and their hubbies weren't home yet. I'm not sure how, but they had figured out that if my husband wasn't home, theirs were still training. If he was home, theirs had stopped off at a bar after work. I didn't let this bother me because I was happy that he wanted to come home to me. Actually, I think he was more anxious to get home to the dinner I had waiting, which wasn't that simple since this was also before microwaves.
Several years went by, before my second clue. It wasn't a suggestion, it was an in-your-face announcement of: He's dull! He was leaving a military base and the tradition was to roast the departing person at a luncheon. Since my husband didn't have any "fun" bad habits for them to tease him about, they went after him for being dull. He took it in good humor, but just in case, on the way out I whispered, "I like you this way!"
I can only conclude that I'm boring too, probably even more boring than he is, so that in comparison, our lives together have seemed like one adventure after another. I couldn't handle any more excitement than life with him has provided.
Happy Valentine's Day, Honey!