Journal entry: 31 July 2014

I took a little California vacation for half of last week and half of this week. While it was fun and relaxing and great to get away for a bit, I sure missed my husband. I may or may not write more about vacationing alone later, but for now I'll just say that these last couple days have convinced me that I much prefer being home with my love over being gone without him.

On a normal Wednesday and Thursday, we would probably eat normal food and watch episodes of House in the evenings to entertain ourselves. We might would gallivant a bit on Thursday afternoon since neither of us has work (well, Joe usually has one guitar lesson to teach, but...that's only 30 minutes of the day), but it would mostly involve errands we would need to accomplish anyway. OR we would stay home so Joe could practice and I would blog. Or something. We're homebodies. We like it that way.

BUT. Since I got home, we've been enjoying each other's company like never before.

Last night, I asked Joe if he had any great ideas for the chicken I was thawing in the fridge. Normally, he would probably say that anything sounded good; but yesterday, he made a request! It is so much easier to make dinner off of a request than it is to make dinner out of thin air. So we had sweet and sour chicken + rice + cauliflower. I was happy for the request, and he was happy to have the dinner he wanted. Win-win.

Then, Joe requested a treat for the evening. I had wanted to make him something to snack on before I left for CA, but I never got around to it and just bought him some snacks instead. He cashed in on that small mention I had made before leaving and requested some chocolate chip cookies. Since I'm a sucker for baked goods, I hopped on board. Normally, this would be primo practicing time for Joseph, but last night he chose to sit in the kitchen and keep me company while I baked. And no surprise here, but I learned quickly that baking is infinitely more fun with company around. It was another win-win since I helped him delete a virus off of his computer in between baking cycles. 

So dinner and dessert together was already more exciting than sitting and watching House. But today we basically jumpstarted an early weekend because...why not? Joe's one Thursday lesson was cancelled, so we had all afternoon with nothing to do. When I got home from work, I ate lunch and we headed to Seven Peaks to see if our POAPs were expired yet since we got them sometime around this month last year. They're still good, so we spent a few hours on the lazy river, in the wave pool, and in the hot tubs. I don't know how to swim, so Joe gave me a little lesson on floating on the river and a longer lesson on actual swimming in the wave pool. I improved! 

On our way out of Peaks, we stopped by the office to ask when our POAPs actually expire. LO AND BEHOLD they don't expire until January! Apparently, our 6 month delay on actually picking up our POAP cards (as opposed to just being lazy and using our paper receipt) paid off in some strange way. I might would feel like we had scammed them on accident, but they scammed us because we were supposed to get gift cards with our POAP order and we never did. Whatevs. We'll be back allllllll summer long. And we'll be mini-golfing through January. Free date nights!

We came home, dried off while catching up on some funny social media posts, and ate an easy egg dinner. I think I may have caught a cold, so Joe pitched in and made his own dinner to ease my load. I still made my own because I'm finicky. Then we settled in for some House-watching and snuggling on the couch.

I guess this still sounds like normality, and it is pretty close to normality. What's really struck me since I got back is how good of friends we really are. I mean, we're married and we're stuck like glue, so we spend lots of time together. But spending time apart reminded me how much that time together matters! It helps us to understand each other's needs and wants. It keeps us on the same page for our short- and long-term hopes and dreams. It reminds us that we're both happy with where we're at and what we have. It reminds us that we're lucky to have each other, and we're lucky to like each other. That time is good for the soul and it's good for our friendship. And that time feels so much sweeter when there's been a shortage of it.

Sometimes it's good to get away from the routine of life for a bit, but it is always good to get back in that same routine. I told Mom when we got home that my favorite part of vacation is always coming back home. Home is good, routine is good, life is good. Why leave when it's so good? (I always have to convince myself that leaving and growing and stretching is good, too, to answer this question.)

Anyways, I'm off to sleep in my own bed and love every second of it. Good night.