Our Love Story

Friday Night Flight

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beer tastingToday I was planning to publish a post about the challenge of balancing work with family and other commitments, keeping the first’s importance in perspective in relation to the rest of life’s riches.

free beerSpring semester starts on Monday, however, and I’ve been buried in reading for classes, writing syllabi, and preparing schedules, so I haven’t found (made?) time to complete my blog writing.

Ah, life’s little ironies.

In another twist, instead of slavish devotion to syllabi or essay construction, I elected to go out for a beer with a few of my co-workers and hubby Steve this evening.

I’ll make that essay happen, and I hope you’ll find it worthy. In the meantime, I hope that by putting friends and family first tonight, I’m being a good role model and practicing a little of what I’ll be preaching.

Cheers!

cheers for beer

Epiphany, in Five Trees

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1. In a Carton

wine with treeIt’s a blustery Friday night, one week before Christmas. Outside, the wind whistles past the dining room windows while inside, cozy and warm, Steve and I sit across the table from one another, bellies full of delicious Lebanese take-out. It’s our first married Christmas, and after two years of whirlwind holiday traveling to Las Vegas (my family) and Oxford, England (his), it’s our first to be celebrated at home. Nearby, in the living room of our new house, a Christmas tree lies compressed in a large cardboard box, awaiting assembly and festive accoutrement. We pour second glasses of red wine, the Pinot catching the light from the chandelier above as I lift my glass. Steve smiles, offers a “Cheers” and a gentle clink. We sip and savor, share another smile.

And then each of us grabs one of the stacks of papers sitting in the middle of the table, and we begin the marathon push to complete end-of-semester grading. We’ll get to the tree tomorrow. Continue reading →

Happy Holidaze

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FsFTB has been busy getting her holiday ON!

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Well, okay, not quite THAT on. The credit for this incredible light display goes to Peter Archie, whose commitment to seasonal decor awes me. It took hubby Steve and me an entire afternoon and then some to select, decorate, and hang two lighted garlands and a wreath on our front porch entry; another few weeks passed before we got to the trees. Yes, plural. Between the two of us, we’ve been amassing ornaments for 104 years.

In fact, we visited the above awe-inspiring light display a few days after the holiday, because we couldn’t cobble the time any earlier. This first-married-Christmas thing has been beautiful, surprising, and not a little intense. Continue reading →

The Newlywed Lunarversary: A Matter of Time

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This Saturday is mine and Steve’s three-month wedding anniversary. When we commented over Thanksgiving that we could go out to dinner in Portland to celebrate the date since we’d be traveling, one of the boys guffawed, teasing us for tracking months, saying three wasn’t much of an accomplishment since most anyone could make a marriage last that long. (Well, except Britney Spears.) But recent events have reminded me that none of us is guaranteed days much less years, so we might as well honor the middling milestones. I’m glad I married a man who shares that same spirit, even if we sometimes struggle to make it happen.

As our first-month anniversary approached, I thought it would be sweet for us to acknowledge our wedding date each month, but I knew if we were going to, we’d need to make a deliberate plan. Both Steve and I are prone to letting the distractions of the day-to-day get the best of our good intentions. Planning something even small and silly would be good for us, help us stay in balance and keep romance present. Continue reading →

Rules to Riches: Forging New Holiday Traditions

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Thanksgiving greetings, readers and friends! A few days late, but gratitude is always timely. I hope you’ll forgive my delayed good wishes and post. In addition to hosting a family holiday gathering for the first time in our new home, I also celebrated a birthday this past week. I decided to focus on family, food, and fun with friends, and save my reflections for today.

tablesettingCelebrating our first Thanksgiving as a married couple was exciting and exhausting. Hubby Steve’s two grown sons came in, and we made valiant efforts to ready the house for their company, unpacking and arranging the last of the kitchenware (we didn’t quite make it) and situating the remaining cardboard boxes, if not out of sight, at least out of footpath. It was tough for me to host with so much still in disarray, because growing up, a house about to welcome holiday guests (even close relatives) was always scrubbed, straightened, and festively arrayed. It felt like I was breaking an unwritten rule to have stacks everywhere and so much still out of place. Continue reading →

Portrait of a Mixed Marriage

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Donkey-elephant

Photo by johnlund.com

Politically, my husband Steve and I have a mixed marriage: he has traditionally identified as right, conservative, Republican; I as left, liberal, Democrat. In a nigh-unto-election year, should either of us be persuaded by the political media machine that urges us to adopt these broad labels as essential truths, we would likely spend the first year of our marriage in warring camps, chary adversaries if not flat-out enemies.

Thankfully, that’s not necessary, because—contrary to what politicians and the media (not to mention your Facebook friends) would have you believe—the nexus of identity and political ideals is never quite that simple. Steve, for example, does not fit neatly into any ideological box. Fiscally, he’s conservative, but on social issues he stands somewhere between libertarian and liberal. He’s voted for Republicans, yes, but also Democrats and third-party candidates. He holds some distinctly right-wing views (he believes there is a liberal bias to most mainstream media) and some distinctly leftist ones (he supports gay marriage as a civil right). The best word to describe his overall stance is probably “moderate,” but it’s more accurate to say he defies categorization.

I, on the other hand, might actually be that simple. Every political-orientation quiz I’ve ever taken places me squarely in the liberal zone. According to The Political Compass, I’m left of the Dalai Lama. Continue reading →