Back in the Day...

As I sit here, just having finished my lunch, I cannot help but think about life back in the day.  Life B.C. was quite a bit different.   I was finishing up my Top Ramen while leaning against the sink and shooing away the cats and enjoying a moment of silence when it hit me.  This sequence of events has not happened in years.  Probably since I met Willie and he made me stop buying Top Ramen. What can I say? The dehydrated highly salted noodles are just so addicting.

Anyway, as I was saying, I realized that I had not eaten a lunch of Top Ramen while leaning against the kitchen sink and shooing away my cats during a moment of peace in about three years.  I started reminiscing about the series of events that has changed my life so much in just the last three years to the point where I have forgotten what daily habits I clung to so desperately in single-hood.

Just three years ago, I was barhopping three to four nights a week, working a minimum wage job, living in a garage apartment in the ghetto of Southeast Texas for $300 a month, clinging to a relationship that was over long before it started, and living off Top Ramen and espresso.

Now? Now I don't even know where the closest bar is, my work is paid for in hugs and kisses, I'm living in a great apartment in a great part of town, married to my wonderful husband of two years, and I'm 3,000 miles from where it all began...

It has been a whirlwind ride these last few years.  I met Willie and we fell in love with a spark (if I believed in love at first sight I would say that's what we experienced) 3 and a half years ago.  It was a lovely affair for a few months before getting serious.  We met every other weekend to spend every moment with each other before Willie drove the four hours back to base.  When that was not enough, I packed up my little one-bedroom garage apartment into a U-Haul truck and left my family and friends behind to spend every free moment with him.

Our engagement was a pretty low-key affair-happening during a commercial break during the latest episode of Family Guy.  We announced the news to our friends via Myspace, and I left for a month long trip to Europe the following week.  After my trip, we set our wedding date and I started the planning.  The wedding was at a quaint little garden near my parents house on a warm fall evening.  What do you know?? That evening will be celebrated twice over next week.

I can hardly believe how much my life has changed with his help.  Parenthood (and married life itself) is pretty stressful at times.  We are at each others throats almost daily, but at the end of the day we know that what matters is that we are still in love and still make a great team.  We have recently decided that it's time to slow our lives down and just enjoy the family we have.  I think that is best.

I'm sure even without planning for another child just yet, it will still be another whirlwind year.  Don't we always have a way of making it so?