Like all great
leaders in history, I get most of my best ideas and thoughts in the most cliché
place you can think of. No, not on the “throne”… in the shower. Many moons ago
when I worked as a Customer Support Analyst for a computer software company, I
can recall numerous morning cleansing routines when I would come up with the
solution to a client’s issue who had called in the day before. I would get to
work that morning and immediately call them to deliver the best four words you
can utter to an upset client: “I solved your issue.” Just stepping into a warm
shower can often clear the fog from the previous day’s chaos… which is why I’m
a firm believer in the phrase, “Sleep
on it.” In my opinion, it should be expanded to “Sleep on it… then take a
shower.”
Earlier this
week, I had a revelation as I stepped into the steam after the daily 5am alarm
went off. The next couple weeks signals the end of an era in my life… well, my
life indirectly. By the end of the second
week of July, all of my good friends will be married. By this time next month,
every single one of my groomsmen will have said their own vows, pledging their everlasting love to the woman they have
chosen to spend the rest of their lives with. Well, that’s the idea, anyway.
While I was one of the first in my cohort to tie the knot (5 years ago last
week!), the rest have slowly but surely made their way to the altar. I won’t
mention names as to who was more reluctant than others…
Mommy B and I
have never really been a “sedentary couple”. Ever since we started dating 10
years ago, we’ve had an inside joke about being on the “fast-track to
adulthood.” I’m not talking about the teen-pregnancy, shotgun-wedding and move
into together type of fast-track you see on TV. I’d like to believe that we’ve
done things the right way, in the right order, at the right times. Here’s a
Cliff’s Notes version: graduated from college in December of 2006, moved to
Charleston, SC that same month (with
jobs!); got engaged in July 2007; got married in June 2008; bought our house in
July 2008; got a dog in August 2008; had first child in October 2010; had
second child in April 2012. Numerous trips and adventures in between. You get
the idea, yeah?
My point is that
we’ve done a lot of what I consider “adult
things” in a span of seven years or so. That isn’t to knock my friends by
saying that they haven’t done the same in that span of time. I think that
everyone has their own pace and everyone is at a different stage in life at
different times. It goes without saying that not everyone is as lucky as I was to find someone like Mommy
B so early in life. When it comes to being with the same person 24/7, 10 years
is no drop in the bucket. We’ve had lots of time to learn about one another and learn from
one another.
But what I
really took away from the stream of consciousness was, “This is it.” Not to use
a bad Michael Jackson reference, but it all kind of struck me at once. There’s
really no one left after this. In the interest of full disclosure, my initial
thoughts were how tired I was going to be over the course of the few days
surrounding each wedding. But that’s
when I realized this was the last
couple go-arounds. After these last couple weddings, I won’t have any more
(good) excuses to leave the kids at home and dance the night away with Mommy B.
We’ll be relegated on down to the big birthday and anniversary milestones only,
which is kind of a bummer.
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