My One Love

Tomorrow is my wife's birthday, the first that we'll celebrate as a married couple. She's out right now with some friends from the school that she works at, enjoying things like sushi and martinis, things that even she couldn't get me to eat. Sure, now I'll try sauteed spinach without questioning it and take a big bite of baked mahi-mahi without a second thought, but sushi? PASS.

This picture here is from our wedding day, the best, happiest day of my life, of our life. I cannot fathom a more perfect day than the one that we committed ourselves to each other on. The weather was great for mid-May in Florida, everything arrived on time as far as food and set-up, and no one got lost (that we know of). But most of all, she was beautiful. I knew all along that I was going to cry in front of all of our family and friends, but it didn't matter. Seeing her round the corner in the rose garden and smile down the aisle at me was too much positive emotion for me to register. All the excess emotion came streaming out... It's like the blog title says: I'm an emotional kind of guy, I'm not ashamed to admit it. And honestly, there's no one who brings me more joy than the woman that I vowed to forever hold as my one love.

Now this isn't meant to just be a sappy, "Oh look at how happy we are together," post, it's not. I just want the world to realize that there are still men out there who are completely in love with the woman that they've committed their lives to. I've told her since the day that I realized I love her that she has made me a better person, and that I could never see myself with anyone else any more. We've been together over five years now and it's been the best years of my life. And although there have been hard times and some difficult challenges that we've had to face, we've faced them together, worked through them together, and I firmly believe we've set a good example for all the couples and individuals out there who are looking for someone to emulate.

So anyway, without getting too far into it, I love her. I told her long ago that she's my "heroine," the woman who's simultaneously saved my life and become my addiction, and she still is. She's always supported me in everything that I've wanted to do, while at the same time, she's made sure that I understand the big picture in things. So often I'm impulsive and reactionary, wanting to just go-go-go and get into all kinds of crazy situations (I'm a "starter," remember?) like getting married before we'd been dating for a year. She's smarter than that. She's more grounded than that, and she's passed that strength onto me. Of course, I'm still a little impulsive, but we balance each other out that way.

She also just found out recently that I'm a closet nerd. I secretly harbor all sorts of nerdy habits and hobbies, and despite just now realizing that, she's going to tough it out and stick with me. It's one of what we call "secret single habits." I won't tell you what hers are (marital privilege), but she can if she wants. Suffice it to say, she loves me regardless of whether I like to... well... nevermind, I'm keeping mine secret too.

So here I am, waiting for her to get home so we can enjoy one of our favorite past times, Thursday night TV and ice cream, and all I can think about is her. So to my one love: happy birthday. I love you. Oh, and if you're not home soon, I'll be eating your share of the low-fat mint chocolate cookie.