The First Chat

What a strange day. I stayed up so late the night before. Jennifer first of all freaked me out with an April Fool’s day blog announcing she was pregnant. Im so friggin gullible. Tben I had to reason that certainly she would tell me first if she was pregnant wouldn’t she? I know she does like facebook and her blog a lot. Finally I had to call just to make sure. I am really looking forward to having children again (one of the many reasons I chose Jennifer) but just not quite this fast. Plus we abstained til we we got married, granted it wasn’t that long of an abstaining period. That is one of the benefits of a long distance relationship, it cuts down on the physical temptation.

So then Jennifer sent me the transcript of our very first chat. Its 60 pages long. Can you believe that? We are both very fast typists…almost type as fast as we can talk. So the first conversation looking back it was clear that she and I were meant to be. It was some funny stuff, but a lot of it was pretty risqué which is Jennifer and my personality. Here’s just one small section that I wrote:
“That is really hard to do. Have you ever noticed people that put on their profile...Love to laugh...yeah who doesn't. Wait...I take that back, I actually know a few people that don't. I have started this improv comedy team, and we really take making people laugh seriously. The way to a woman's heart is through her funny bone, I've heard. And to think all this time I was thinking it was her sternum. No wonder Im having issues. I should forewarn you that girls fall for me all the time, but mostly because I stand them on a slippery surface and usually get a running start……OK...enough with the gags, lets talk about sex, baby, talking about you and me and all the good things...wait...That's a song isn't it. Actually I liked your openness and honesty about the "sex" word. Is it ok for non-married Christians to say that word. I certainly hope so, because its my fourth favorite subject right behind Medieval Chinese Warlords and just ahead of Asceticism in modern day Peru.”

If we clean the chat up, I think its publishable. I’ve had so many people ask me to write my story into a book…and perhaps I will someday. The transcripts of our chats and courtship would be a good addition. So I wound up reading some of it, but I couldn’t read the whole thing, but I caught myself laughing over and over because we are really funny.

Then I got caught up finishing The Amazing Race season 13. I was able to download the entire season in Itunes for $8.99. I really like the Amazing Race because I feel like my life is the Amazing Race. I found myself watching the second to last episode and balling like a baby. I love the redemptive aspect of it with all the relationships. Wow…do I want to emulate that for my career. So then I wound up calling Jennifer, crying some more. I felt like my father for a bit. He doesn’t get emotional often and the one time in the past 50 years where he did cry, he got so excited “look Rit’ tears.” His mother (my grandmother) a very old school German woman once told him, “Stop crying Donny, real boys don’t cry.” Its amazing the effect that parents can have on impressionable children. So much power. Im fortunate in that my parents were always believing and supporting me emotionally and financially. Im reaping the benefit of it now. Jennifer’s parents were the same way. I went to a parenting class once and they spent the 75% of the class on the relationship between the husband and the wife. So if you want to be a good parent, really the only thing you have to do is love your spouse…the rest are all details. I think that is why I have such an overriding sense of guilt with my own children. I was not able to give them as great of an upbringing as I had. I hope that one day my relationship with them will be as close as my relationship with my parents today. We don’t talk everyday, but they know that I love them. This blog is a way for me to stay in contact.

So after all that conversation and Amazing Race, I didn’t get to sleep til 4:30 am. Is it any wonder I wound up either sleeping through my alarm or turning it off in my sleep. I didn’t wake up til 2 pm. Then I headed straight to the British Club to play Darren at squash. I was a little nervous since I hadn’t played him for 3 weeks and I was coming off both a stomach virus and the flu. I was just hoping to score a point or two and not get embarrassed. I wound up shutting him out of 4 games to 0. How does that happen? I hadn’t beat him like that for months. He was really discouraged, and I kind of felt bad…but he had been kicking my butt for months.

Life is pretty good right now. I’m glad Im making it through the storms.