Things My Wife Complains About: #2 Allowing Her to Nap

While showering before work yesterday, I committed the previously unknown crime of allowing her to take a nap on the couch. When she awoke, she chastened me for allowing this nap to happen, pointing out that had I brought her coffee in the middle of my shower, her nap probably wouldn't have happened. These solutions propose themselves!

Proposed solutions!

1) Interrupt shower to serve wife coffee (hat tip to wife).
2) Shower in middle of night while wife is already sleeping.
3) Hook coffee IV to wife's arm, provided bag is weightless (hard).

Blowing Through Nap Time (2008)

Our First Date 2006

Kevin at Michael's Bistro in Cville (2006)

Happy anniversary! I know we're married now, so the old dating anniversary should no longer count, but I think it should this year, since otherwise there is no anniversary this year.

These pictures show how we looked in summer of 2006 when we met. I got a bit overdressed to get coffee at Mudhouse and Sarah, my unfailingly kind law school friend, drove me there. That's why when Kevin and I got married, I had Sarah give me the ring. Without her, how could it have happened?

Ericka at Busch Gardens (2006)

It was Sunday, so Kevin was sitting outside reading the New York Times. The first thing I noticed about him was his bushy hair and that he was cute. Being overdressed payed off perhaps because Kevin got me a cappuccino while he sipped a green tea. While he tried to impress me with his two-book contract and personal Dave Barry connection (I love Dave Barry), I somehow managed not to frighten him off with my denial of the existence happiness.

Maybe he thought some ice cream would make me happier? After Mudhouse, he suggested we walk over to Chaps for dessert. I was charmed. He drove me home to Ivy Gardens and asked if I'd be interested in another date. I said, "definitely."

Things My Wife Complains About: #1 Her Coffee Being Too Heavy

Occasionally my wife complains about things, and occasionally I will document them, as well as proposed solutions. The long-term goal of this project is to catalog every complaint, so as to have an easy resource for problem solving. I enter into this project with the counter-productive acknowledgment that many--if not most--complaints are presented without hope--or even desire--for resolution.

On to complaint #1!

During the twenty-minute walk to the DMV on Tuesday, my wife offered a new complaint, which is that her coffee was too heavy to carry.

Proposed solutions!

1) Encourage wife to drink coffee from a straw.
2) Don't make wife coffee.
3) Alter the molecular structure of coffee to make it less heavy (hard).

 

Drinking coffee (2006)

First Email 2006

July 24, 2006 was a Monday. After two weeks of feeling kind of bummed out, I woke up feeling really good. My law school friends and I were wrapping up our summer jobs and discussing interviewing at UVA the week before we returned to classes in the fall. I had no idea where I might end up. I planned a trip with friends to Busch Gardens for that Friday. Ash got the job she wanted at GE, and my Irish friend Laura became an American citizen. It was a good Monday.

The previous Saturday I had gone out on a date with an interesting nice guy. He emailed me that morning to ask for a second date. I wrote to Aubree, "I went on one date, and the guy was not for me. But he was nice. Maybe I'll make a friend?" In response to a similar email to Ash, she wrote me, "We all want to love the good guys who love us to death. But, you can't force who you love (or are in love with, I should say)." Later that afternoon she wrote again, "… when the right thing comes along, neither person will screw it up…." I wrote the guy a thanks-but-no-thanks email.

But Kevin and I were having difficulty meeting. On October 6, 2005, I was at the same Rolling Stones Concert as Kevin, his uncle George, and cousin Mike. We even had a friend in common, Jinsoo, who had gone to undergrad with Kevin and law school with me.

Excuse me, have you seen my future husband?

I was sitting on Sarah's couch, when I got this email in response to my comments that I am persecuted by mosquitoes and that I write haikus when I am sad:

Date: 07/24/2006 11:20 pm
Subject: hi

Message: i endorse the bug spray/cologne my roommate brought back from turkey, which "can be used as a disinfectant for insect bites" and also "has pleasant scent and a cooling and calming effect."

have you read robert hass? he's a brilliant poet who translated some sad haiku. here's one that's like a two-hundred-year-old protest against bug spray:

don't kill that fly!
look it's wringing its hands
wringing its feet

best,
kevin

Before I Met Kevin 2006

Welcome to our new family blog. I was inspired by my friends' yearly Christmas updates and my friends at Wanderings and Our little British baby to keep our own little family story. Part news update-- part personal keepsake. (Did you know that you can turn a blog into a printed book with just a few clicks on Blurb?)

I was going to wait until the anniversary of meeting Kevin next week to talk about how we met, but a search of my Gmail account (if you're using unsearchable email, why bother?) turned up something so amazing, I had to start today.

I like it not only because it's funny, but because it's so sad and scary. I know some of you are single and you worry about being alone or "settling." Well, I hope you take heart that I got this email exactly three years ago, the day before my future husband's first email to me. Kevin hates clichés, but "it's always darkest before dawn" is pretty appropriate here:

Hi daddymac.

Wendy and Clark's Wedding 2009

Our first wedding as a married couple! My high school friend Wednesday had been dating Clark for years, and they had long since resolved to elope. The first time they tried to do so was September 11, 2008. They got to the City Clerk's office right before it closed and realized they hadn't gotten out cash for the marriage license. Personally, I'm glad they were foiled the first time. They were able to avoid accidentally having a September 11th wedding anniversary, and when they actually made it back there this July 16, the City Clerk's office had been completely refurbished.

I kept hoping that when they finally got married I would get a last minute call. A month after Kevin and I returned from our honeymoon, I got an email on Tuesday that they would be married on Thursday. I was pleased and impressed that I was finding out before the actual day.

I was able to make it to the ceremony thanks to my job, and I was really thrilled to be there. Clark was happy and nervous and kept checking for their number to come up on the monitors. I got to spend time with them in the disco-music-playing waiting room and took a ton of pictures of them. It felt like having cocktail hour before the ceremony. I was touched that they used her parents' wedding rings. Though the ceremony was very brief, the way Wednesday's face lit up when it was finished was really beautiful.

First married hug

Knudsen family rings

Most people couldn't make it to the actual ceremony, but they had an after-party in a cool hotel in the Lower East Side after work. Kevin was able to join me for the after-party. He enjoyed the whiskey and made lots of new friends; I enjoyed the super-tasty wedding cake with coconut. We had a really nice time with them. Congratulations Wendy and Clark! May you have a lifetime of happiness.

Cutting the wedding cake at the after-party

Kissing in front of the Empire State Building

Dad's 60th Birthday 2009!

Unfortunately, I have had to cancel our birthday plans because Wendy and Clark are having an impromptu wedding today. (I got the email invite Tuesday.) Happy birthday, dad!


A month ago, with the parental-units

Fourth of July 2009!

For the Fourth of July, Kevin and I went to NoVa to celebrate the Fourth of July with some of our closest, dearest friends. I had dinner with Janice and Darren, Sarah and Donald and Josh the day we arrived. Josh also visited us in New York last week before making his way down to Virginia before starting his JAG training. Then some of us met up with Julie to walk around Old Town Alexandria.

Janice, Sarah, and I at Duangrat's Thai restaurant

Donald's favorite Thai restaurant (with Josh)

Photoshopped best-of-Darren with best-of-Janice

In front of the Court House in Old Town Alexandria

Pop's Old Fashioned Ice Cream in Alexandria

The following day, Jaime threw a party for the Fourth of July-- and basically for us. We barbecued, basked in the sun, watched fireworks and had a lovely time.

Jaime and I view DC Fireworks from Arlington

Cory and Robin

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Lina and Roger

Our first married holiday, Independence Day?

Wow.