what i got

Before I was married, I had that mental checklist, you know, the one where the guy you were supposed to marry had to have all of those specific qualities.  Wait, you didn't have that list?


Well anyway, part of my list (besides the obvious: has to like me, have a job, want kids, wear good shoes, have clean fingernails and nice teeth, etc) went like this:


1.  Has to love music.  Has to have cool music tastes.  Has to play the piano or another cool instrument.

2.  Has to own and ride a cool motorcycle, or want to own and ride a cool motorcycle.  Preferably a Harley.  A loud one.
(--I do recognize that I need a new adjective for a word that means the same as cool)

3.  Has to be a military man, a Marine is perfect.  Who doesn't love a guy with a high and tight in dress blues??

4.  Has to be creative, artists are definitely good.

5.  Has to love reading and books.

6.  Has to be taller than me, with dark hair, and I was a sucker for brown-eyed boys.


I never did meet a guy with all of those qualities.  In fact, hardly any guys I dated had even two of those qualities, and I always seemed to have a decent amount of guys to date.  My sisters were always trying to fix me up.  I guess I went through a phase after a rough breakup, where I was sure I was never going to meet the right person.  It was really hard actually.  I was sad and lonely for a long time.  But not sad and lonely enough to go on a second date with that window salesman Tyrone set me up with, ugh, or that jerky Trooper.  What a loser. 


ANYWAY, (boy my stories sure seem to go off in their own direction sometimes, don't they?), having a mental checklist really was a crazy, young-kid way of thinking.  When all is said and done, and you grow up a little and throw away the immature parts of the mental checklist, the most important things really and truly are that you have to have chemistry, you have to have trust and faith and laughter and really, you have to genuinely like the person you are with.  Like, you just know they are good and decent human beings, and you fit.


That's what I got, when I least expected it.  I got lucky.  And my boy doesn't play a musical instrument, but he sings with gusto, even if he doesn't know the words and he is sooooo off key.  And he doesn't own or ever want to own a motorcycle, because he knows it would upset his Grandmother, and I totally get that.  And he is so not a military man, but he has his own version of a high and tight, and wears a handsome suit pretty much every day.  Artistic, creative and a lover of books - he is not, but he draws a mean stick figure, is creative in the garden and he reads the news every day.  And he's smart and a good conversationalist either way.  He's not taller than me, we see eye to eye, actually, and I am glad, because he has nice BLUE eyes that are kind and mischievous and loving.

He also gets me, and he accepts me and he is faithful and he knows how to make me laugh, especially when I am mad.  He's a great dad and a great husband and he works so hard every single day.  He's the only one I want to share stuff with, and the only one I want to hug me when I cry.  He is what I got. And I am really, truly thankful.