wedding road trip

Old Friends, Almost Breakups

I met Jon back in junior high school through a youth group called Flipside. Given that I was boy crazy, I of course had a crush on him immediately. Since we met roughly twenty years ago, I can safely say that I am totally over:

• The fact that he flushed a poem I wrote him down the toilet.
• The fact that he held my hand in the back of a church van and then denied it twenty minutes later.
• The fact that he would go for months and months without answering my thoughtfully-penned, extremely wise high school letters.

To Jon, I say about all of this… it’s still your fault!

But like I said, I’ve moved on.

Jon now lives in Irving, Texas, approximately two miles from Dutch the Horny Dog. He is married to Deborah, a wonderful woman with a kind heart and a wicked sense of humor. This is Jon’s second marriage, as the first ended when he realized that yes, his new wife was actually quite crazy. Thankfully, Jon found his way out of that marriage and into a solid relationship with a woman that I am sure will be by his side for the long haul. If not, I like her so much that she can totally move into my guest room. If I had one.

Given that we showed up a half an hour late and Jon was eyeing my left bicep quite hungrily, we decided to grab food right away. Deborah took us to her favorite local Korean joint, where the food was so good that I actually considered breaking my incredibly boring eating habits to make a return trip the next day. Then it was off to get some bubble tea, where we chatted about life, love, marriage, and the ridiculously odd music that was pumping out of the loudspeakers.

Back at casa de Jon + Deborah, we continued the interview. Given that they are in their second year of marriage, they had some keen insights on how to handle the first year.  Jon pointed out that he had to learn to fight differently, as Deborah doesn’t respond well to shouting matches. Deborah mentioned that she had to learn to deal with Jon’s guy friends, who seemed to be suffering from the delusion that Jon was still single. Both seemed pretty set on the idea that good communication is what keeps them together. I completely agree, as I often like to communicate to Chris that he should rub my feet, scratch my back, and read me bedtime stories. Just kidding. Sort of.

Deborah, who is considering a career in psychology, managed to turn the interview around to us faster than you can say, “avoidance tactic.” To be honest, I can’t remember what the question was exactly that led me to burst into tears and consider the next flight home. It’s amazing what talking about marriage for eleven days straight can do to a girl. All I know is the conversation went something like this:

Jaime: Maybe if you’d actually help me, I wouldn’t have to get up at 5am every morning to do my freelance work, update the website, Twitter, Facebook, and answer emails!
Chris: What do you call driving all the way from Santa Fe to Dallas? That’s helping!
Jaime: Right. You didn’t drive the whole way. I drove from Amarillo to Johnson, which is just outside of Dallas. Of course, you were too busy checking email to write a blog.
Chris: I have to schedule the New York portion of our trip.
Jaime: You’ve been scheduling that for the past two weeks! I scheduled everything on my end before we left. What do you think I’ve been working on for the past two months?
Chris: Well, obviously you’re pretty slow at it if it took you that long!

I would include the rest but you get the gist. Grr. July 12 is sounding far, far away.