Balance

This is a picture that I look last week and have been staring at it ever since. Yeah, the little kid on the right is cute and all... and I know I've probably taken better, more flattering picture of V in the past, but there's just something about my wife in this picture that keeps me coming back to this photo and reminds me of how fortunate I am to have (yes a beautiful family, but) her especially. It seems absurd that sometimes I lose scope of that, but I guess life can get in the way of pretty much anything if you let it.

Speaking of which, last Wednesday was V's 31st birthday. Granted we had a cake, she got a gift, and we both really enjoyed spending a little more time together than usual this weekend (even if 96% of it was to-do-list stuff)... But I still have to admit that I didn't do a good enough job of prioritizing our celebration of her special day. Without a worthwhile plan in place, it kind of slipped by us without any of the fanfare that she deserves and usually looks forward to. And here we are 4 days later still trying to figure out when we'll be able to fit in a dinner date to commemorate the occasion. Just sad. And I know she's unfazed, already into her preparatory routine for the workweek ahead, and will quickly tell you "it's cool" because we were both busy, and we still had a fun weekend, and spent time together, and yadda yadda yadda... but I still feel like a scrub because I know I could've done better.

We don't have a lot of differences of opinion... but our desire for celebrating birthdays, anniversaries and holidays could not be more different. While I am a no-big-deal kind of person, she is one who anticipates and relishes in the celebration of anything "first". I can hear her now telling me how "today is the anniversary of our first (fill in the blank)"... first meeting, first date, first visit, first phone call, first home cooked meal together, first toe nail clipping,... etc. Usually, I'm smart enough to know that even when I don't "get it", if it is important enough to her then my job is to "do now, figure it out later"... and I've been getting pretty good at following through with that. But this year I had a relapse, and so now I've got my work cut out for me to make up for it next year. So, 12 months from now, if you get a postcard in the mail from us discussing how warm it is in Puerto Rico, you'll know why.

Happy 31st, my love. And happy 32nd in-the-works.

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UPDATE...
Numero uno, since at least 3 people have asked, maybe I should clarify... No we are not literally going to Puerto Rico next year (lol)... Well, maybe we will, who knows. But more than anything my point was to suggest that next year we will be sure to have more fun with her birthday. Whether that is in Virginia, Puerto Rico, or the western coast of Sri Lanka, I have no idea. But for now... V, you can stop ordering travel brochures and checking our frequent flyer miles [kidding].

Numero dos... We did finally make it out to her birthday dinner on Monday. We ate at a local Japanese steakhouse, had the place to ourselves, and I did what I could to embarrass V by dancing in the middle of the Restaurant to some Japanese music. I had no clue what they were saying but the hostess was nice enough to pump up the volume for us anyway. In the end, I'm not sure which was funnier: me trying to dance, or V tripping over a chair trying to get away from me. Either way you slice it, it was a good time.