Day 15: The Woman with Nine Lives
I met Adrienne when we took three and a half months out of our regularly-scheduled lives to whore ourselves out for Wal-Mart and Coppertone as part of the Steps Across America campaign. At the time, I truly believed that we were walking across the United States for the better health of our great country, armed with the heroic task of teaching people how to use pedometers.
God, I’m gullible.
Adrienne is one of those women who lives a life that most people only talk about. She’s always off on some adventure or working on an ambitious project, such as the children’s book that she published recently. All of this would be completely acceptable and unenviable if she were butt-ugly. But no, Adrienne has the audacity to be drop-dead gorgeous.
Inside, I seeth.
Chris and I met up with Adrienne at Colombia’s, a famous Spanish restaurant in Tampa. Our waiter Tristan was quite entertaining and had a James Bondian-like manner that hinted of illicit drug sales. To date, he is my favorite waiter on our Wedding Road Trip, not only because of his skill, but also because of his dry sense of humor.
Adrienne’s marriage advice was simple: the right match for anyone must allow you to have independent pursuits. This means that if Adrienne gets married, her future husband will have to accept that she may take periodic trips to Italy to work on an article or to Africa to help out with an illiteracy campaign. We both totally dug her approach and decided to add “appreciates independence” to our list of relationship must-haves.
Adrienne also told us a cautionary tale about a former boyfriend who referred to his secret girlfriends as “buddies.” At first, she gave him the benefit of the doubt, but when he flew off to Costa Rica with his “buddy,” she decided the gig was up and moved on. Again, her advice was on the money: if you can’t trust the person you’re dating or marrying, the relationship is simply not worth it.
Shortly after lunch, I asked Chris what he thought of Adrienne. he paused and then said, “you know, I could be married to a woman like that. Life with her would never grow boring.”
Indeed.
Tags: day 15 tampa florida, florida wedding road trip, marriage advice
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube
I’m so delighted you came to Tampa, but my reading won’t stop here. Gotta keep track of the almost break-ups and relationship advice from your hodge-podge of family-friends.
Oh… and another note… In my younger years I never gave a tremendous amount of thought about the company we keep or how influential friends and family can be. I never thought anything of a partner meeting my parents or closest friends. These things weren’t really big deals for me. Today they are MEGA DEALS. I don’t want any Joe-Blow meeting my mom, dad or bff anymore.
I imagine you’re meeting many of each others friends and family for the first time. Some of them are more important than others, but each will reveal a moment, behavior, attitude and experience that either the two of you have encountered in your past. I’m not saying I’m super special, but I feel super lucky for being included on your road map. I’m happy to have been apart of tiny experience in Jaime’s past and happy to have been given a first-hand glimpse into your future together.
Can’t wait to meet the rest on your wedding road-trip!
Cheers!