Five years

Five years ago today Jaime and I had our first date. I remember driving home from our date thinking - I just met my person. After 33 years, it seemed about time.

My friend The Badger and I used to nickname the people that we dated so we would have funny stories to talk about instead of being depressed about having strange dates. Some of my favorite nicknames include: Broke Drummer, Not-so-HAH, Clockwise, The Giant. So Badger and I had a debrief the next day about my date.

A (remembered) transcript of our conversation:

Badger - Dude, so... how was your date?

Me - It was good! (I describe the date, that there was nothing wrong with him, he didn't say that he hated his mom or tortured animals, etc.)

Badger - Well so what's his nickname going to be?

Me - hmm (I thought - Sensitive Poet? Bearded Teacher? Crazy cat guy?) I think his name might be my boyfriend.

Badger - Your boyfriend?

Me - Yes

Badger - Wow dude. Do you think you should tell him?

Me - Tell him what?

Badger - That he is your boyfriend - gosh.

Me - Quit bossing me! I don't know, do you think I should tell him?

Badger - I'm not bossing you! But yeah, I mean maybe you should tell him. Don't you think?

So, on our second date I went ahead and informed Jaime that he was my boyfriend. Instead of breaking out in a cold sweat and running for the hills, he said - I think I like that title.

And there it began.

In five years we have sold a house, bought a house, rented two houses, birthed a beautiful child and moved across the world together. We have seen each other at our best and our worst. Luckily we have not both been at our worst at the same time and one is always there to get the other back on track.

Jaime has endured months of paperwork to move us here, tons of logistics, has lugged home bags of cat litter, lights, mops, brooms, etc. on the bus and even got a bruise on his shoulder from schlepping (as he calls it). He is an amazing father and takes wonderful care of our family here in Switzerland.

He still brings me home hot sauce from the store, gets my favorite sparkling water, and brings home new toothbrushes for me. He even got me a weekend downtown last week with a spa day included - as a reward for my strenuous mothering duties that I perform on a daily basis. He also still lets me use the excuse that I breastfed if I don't want to get up to change the channel on the TV, take out the recycling, drive somewhere, or basically for anything I don't want to do without a good reason. He says, "I can't believe you are still getting mileage out of that, it has got to stop at some point", but lets me get away with it.

He called to thank me for the flowers I sent to his work today (I do try) and said "Wow, five years. That is half a decade. Whoa." I am assuming the 'whoa' meant - whoa I can't believe only five years has passed with this wonderful person, vs. whoa, I'm scared.

Anyway, yes we do get irritated with each other and probably still will in the years to come. I assume that Jaime will continue to wish I changed the kitchen washcloth more and used more cloth bags at the store; and I will still probably wish that he didn't track mud and dirt through the house and would quit leaving piles of crap on the counter. But in the scheme of things, those are small details. We do occasionally go to bed mad, but wake up saying sorry, that was dumb. We don't hold grudges and we talk about everything. I probably don't say all of these things enough as we get caught up in day to day life and managing three year olds, tantrums, cat puke, etc. - but I love you Name and are so happy that we are on this journey together.

So here is to five years together and many more to come!

xoxo

Pook