A Bit Backward

Sue and I were married in 1985. We had a 3 day “honeymoon” before combining our homes into one. That included Douglas and Michael.

Now, twenty six and a half years later, we find ourselves alone. Most married couples have at least a few years before the kids start showing up, but we did it backward. To say it is odd to only hear one other set of footsteps in the house would be an understatement.

The other night I heard noises that sounded like the garage door going up. At first, I thought nothing of it but when I heard it again, it occurred to me that no one should be coming through the garage door. Sue and I were both upstairs. So I went down to investigate and discovered it was a plastic cup that was bouncing around inside the dishwasher, but I was so conditioned to hearing the kids come and go that I didn’t think anything of the noise the first time I heard it.

I’m also rediscovering things about Sue; things like what foods she likes best, which movies make her laugh or cry and that she actually likes to sleep in a bit on Saturday mornings. These are all things I’ve always known, or did at one time. It’s just that over the years we geared ourselves more toward what the kids like and a little less about what we like.

For example, one night a couple of weeks ago we made dinner out of a tomato (Christopher doesn’t like), chicken salad (Sarah doesn’t like), cottage cheese (Sarah doesn’t like), crackers and a small bottle of wine (neither of them like). And you know what? It was one of the best meals I’ve had in years. I loved every bit of it. We sat there munching and chatting about our day, what we had planned for the rest of the week, and just things in general. It was great, two adults having a conversation over dinner.

So, we may have had the cart before the horse so to speak, but something tells me we will make out all right.