The Calm Before The Storm

That title seems so dramatic, but really I'm using it quite literally. It's supposed to be a gorgeous winter day today (high near 30!!) and then come Monday we're supposed to get a storm, accumulating between 6 to 12 inches of snow. More snow. Yay. In addition, we're already at a 79% likelihood of significant ("major") flooding in our area this spring, so the additional snowfall will increase that as well. No rest for the weary in the land Mother Nature can't seem to find favor for. Hey Mama Nate - what'd we ever do to you? Like, besides pollute, develop, and all that stuff. Besides that, name one thing! Big bully...

Anyway - I just used an entire paragraph explaining my title choice, so obviously I have a lot of poignant things to say today.

Or not.

Last night I had the pleasure of spending the evening with some women who I've become very fond of since last January - my fellow 35 Under 35 alum. There was a game night at a woman's apartment, and a few of us got together for that. Granted, I turn in to a pumpkin fairly early these days, but let me say I stayed over there till nearly 10 p.m. Ten!! I had to leave before I lost all ability to focus, so I could make it home in one piece, but it was a lot of fun. There's something about getting together with the gals that just refuels a person. I had a blast, wish I could have stayed longer, and will be doing it again. I came home, holding my eyes open, and found the sweetest belated Valentine's gift waiting for me on the kitchen table. Brent had written entirely sweet sentiments for me in a very special card, and there on top were...wait for it...Cadbury Creme Eggs. You all know I'm addicted to these, and if I could live on them, I would find a way. So much for being a food-hippie. I will only buy organic, unless it's a Creme Egg. There's only one way to make those, and that's with rich, chemically-induced goodness. I love them. And I love my husband for knowing how much I love them. I went to bed in short order, heart full, after girl time and husband adoration. Perfect Friday night.

This morning was supposed to be my morning "off". I wanted to be the last one out of bed, not decide on breakfast...just take my sweet time with my awesome bed-head hair do and morning halitosis. The joys of mornings off. Of course, I was the first one awake, due to growing a human in my belly and having to pee every 10.7 minutes. I laid in bed and pretended to be asleep, but it soon became painful to do that and I had to get up. When I sauntered to the bathroom (after fixing my insanely wild bed-head hair do, by the way) I heard a voice calling from her bedroom, "I NEED TO GO POTTY!......HEY!" Brent got up with her and I proceeded to enjoy my morning off by putting laundry away and unloading and re-loading the dishwasher (I know how to relax, right?) before he asked me if he could take a nap. Apparently being awake for 20 minutes was too much. Someone (Brent) stayed up far too late playing a video game with his brother-in-law and father-in-law (my 57 year old father, mind you...) and was a little tired. I would like this video game a lot if I could use it as a clay pigeon for shot-gun target practice. But these guys revel in it and would play it every day for hours at a time if they could. So they can hear each other talk about how frustrating their opponents are, and how it is pure "bullcrap" that they ended up shot themselves. I don't...I just...what in the sam heck is with you guys?

You all know how crazy I am about my husband. Seriously, if you doubt the existence of a mighty God, just look at how this man has stayed with me (me) for 12 years. Brent as himself is living proof of the power of miracles. So I'm crazy about this man, and love him more than I can even express, and sometimes more than I can even feel at times. I was thinking the other day of how we're so different, and how we drive each other crazy sometimes, and yet can't imagine life without the other. Well, I'm speaking for him now. I'm sure he's imagined life without me before and was so struck by the calm and quiet, he didn't know what to do with himself, so had to come back to the reality that is my crazy. Anyway. Take, for instance, mornings. When it comes to mornings, and I have always been this way, I need dark, and quiet. I open drawers and doors and quietly as possible, I pick things up and set them down as gingerly as I can, so as not to make a racket in the least. It's not because I'm trying to be courteous, it's because I can't stand noise in the morning. Don't talk to me, don't expect me to talk, don't turn on the radio or the television, and for the love of all things sane and sacred, DO NOT turn on a light. I have a transition time of at least an hour before I can say I am partially functional. Fully functional comes much, much later in the morning. You think I'm exaggerating, but this is my reality.

Then there's Brent.

Brent needs to not only have the radio on in the morning, but it has to be talk (sports) radio, and has to be blaring at least 34987348907 decibels. He makes his way to the radio by yanking open and slamming shut the dresser drawers, clearing his throat, sometimes even - don't make me say it - whistling. He walks (with far too heavy a step for the early morning) through the house turning on every light he can find, whether he needs it on or not. (Um hello, we have a planet to be conscious of, energy waster.) Yet, we've been married and I've been dealing with the polar opposite of my universe for nearly 10 years now. Does it drive me crazy? Please. Does it snow in North Dakota? Of course it drives me crazy. But I'm more crazy about the man than his oddities make me. How does that classic song go....I'd rather live in his world than live without him in mine. Even if he sounds like a bull in a china closet and turns on every light he can find a switch for.

So now he's napping, I'm taking too long to type this because I'm playing with Little Miss between keystrokes, and it's not the morning off I imagined. It is, however, a beautiful day, a beautiful morning, a beautiful life - and I will soak it all in gladly. God is good, and this day is proof of that. After all, there's a storm comin.