I Was Thinking...

My Awesome Husband Greg eating ice cream in Muskegon, Michigan, July 2013.


I was thinking about how you always fall asleep halfway through an episode of Seinfeld with your mouth open and your head cocked off at a weird angle, and sometimes you don't even close your eyes; but then...

I thought about how you get up at 5:30 every morning, even on weekends, to let the cat out and start the coffee, and how you always bring me a cup with a straw in it and set it on my bedside table so I can just lean over and sip it as I lie there looking out the window, waking up gently.

I was thinking about how there are always wet, sweaty clothes (yours, not mine) draped in the laundry room and the bathroom and on the deck and in the garage, and it seems like they're never going to find their way to the laundry hamper; but then...

I thought about how a few times a week--if it's not raining too hard, but sometimes if it's been raining for several days, and you feel like you've got to "just do it," you dress for the weather, put on your shoes and hit the road running so you can stay strong and healthy and alert--yes, for you, but also for me--and I don't have to worry and nag you about getting enough exercise.

I was thinking about how you borrowed my best tweezers the other day--the ones that belonged to my mom, and I've never been able to find another pair that worked as well--and did God knows what (I probably don't want to know) with them, and then you didn't put them back in the tray, and I had to call you at work to find out if you knew where they were, and you had to think about it for a while before you called me back and told me to look in the pocket of your green shorts, and you are sooooooooo damned lucky they were there; but then...

I thought about how if you have anything that I need, you are more than willing to let me have/use/wear/drink/eat/sell/read/break it, and if you don't have something I need, you'll go to the store and get it for me.

I was thinking about how you lose your temper quickly, with little prompting (oh, all right--after I've pushed a few of your buttons), and you yell at me very vigorously; but then...

I thought how you go out and come back in and you're not mad anymore, and neither am I, and we've been married for 42 years, probably because of stuff like that, and I love you very much.