ratty Jim Morrison t-shirt

I'm married, and sometimes it seems weird that I am. This is why it's weird. (And I am using the word in the sense of funny/ironic/curious.)

The photo here is on our wedding day. Me and Martin. There are a few reasons why it makes NO sense that we would be married.

a) We lived on different continents
b) Most of our relationship was by phone or by email
c) We spent less than a month in the physical presence of each other prior to getting married. (Much of this time was with friends and family, as well.)

These are the most obvious reasons, of course. But we are married, and it is a pretty grand thing. Now, it's pretty weird to me that I think it's grand. Mostly because;

a) I was cynical and abhorred the idea of EVER "submitting" to anyone
b) I always liked to claim to anyone who wanted to listen that I would never marry and that I hated kids
c) I rather enjoyed being an independant woman with my own means
d) I was rather enjoying the "free" life of singledom with little personal or financial accountability. i.e. I really never read my bills or bank statements and I really didn't care
e) When I thought about it, I had never dated nor really met anyone I thought capable of husbandry. Martin, of course, threw this personal dating stereotype out on it's nose

And now I am married. We do things like make smoothies late at night (okay, 10:30 at the latest), leave notes for each other around the house, and share opinions on fashion. I wear a ratty Jim Morrison t-shirt and hideous capri sweatpants around the house. He wears big fuzzy leopard slippers. He always calls me in the morning at work, voluntarily rubs my feet (despite their nastiness!) while watching movies and sticks his sweet face between me and my book (currently Great Expectations) to demand my attention. He calls me "bookworm" and "hottypants". I will not share what I have been known to call him due to the misunderstanding/teasing it may incite.

Being married isn't what people make it out to be. I do believe that marriage has fallen victim to the propaganda wheel of "modern" culture. We all want to be young forever, with no accountability to anyone, no committment, no strings. It's too bad that marriage is portrayed in such a negative way. No wonder the divorce rate is so high. People don't want trouble in their life, so as soon as things get rough, they give up, the idea being it's much easier to not be married.

I am definitely not saying marriage is easy. That would be ridiculous. However, I'm loving it, and it's so cool that it's so cool, and it only gets better every day. Some days I stop what I am doing and just look at Martin and go "We're married...(pause for emphasis) We're married. Isn't that weird?"

One day I'll stop saying it, but for now just letting myself trip out over it feels good.