Don't Hate Me For Saying This...
Some of you are going to hate me for saying this. I’m going to make some of you scream. Some of you might even ::gasp:: unfollow me.
It’s okay. I’ll survive.
If you’re reading this at a later date, we’re currently in the thick of COVID-19 “shelter-in-place”. Or, at least, it feels like the thick of it. Who knows which direction this will turn.
Most of America is staying away from each other and staying at home. Personally, our family is only going to the grocery store about once a week. (No, we don’t have grocery delivery in rural America.)
We haven’t gone to school.
We haven’t gone to work.
We haven’t gone to church.
We haven’t seen our friends.
So here’s the part some of you are going to get mad at.
Ready?...
I don’t hate it.
Now, don’t misread my intention here. I do hate that there is a global pandemic. I hate that our medical professionals, grocery store workers, and all other essential personnel are on the front lines risking their health for the sake of others. I hate that we don’t know which direction this is going and how long it will last.
But I don’t hate having nowhere to go and sitting at home with just my little nuclear family.
I can’t help but relate this to our wedding night. No, no, not like that. This isn’t that kind of blog.
But that evening, after we left the party.
Ben and I got married at a winery outside of Boise many, many moons ago. It was an outdoor wedding and approximately 105 degrees outside. (That’s not at all an exaggeration. So. much. sweat.)
If I remember right, the ceremony was set to start at about 4pm, so naturally, I arrived a couple hours early with my sister and best friends to get ready.
Honestly, what I remember the most of those few hours before the ceremony was that about every 20-30 minutes, I would panic and ask one of my bridesmaids “Did anyone see Ben?” or “Is Ben still here?”.
I was convinced that what was happening was too-good-to-be-true and he was going to bolt before the ceremony started. (This had nothing to do with his character and, in retrospect, everything to do with some apparent PTSD I was harboring from a past relationship.)
Well, he didn’t run off (and still hasn’t to this day – Amen!), and we got married.
After the ceremony, we had an amazing party that would be remembered for the ages with the closest 80 people in our lives. There was food. There was lots of wine. There were amazing speeches. There was non-stop dancing. I can’t even remember all the details, because it flew by in a flash.
But what I remember most about that night was what happened after Ben and I left the party.
We got in our limo, exhausted, and rode down the dirt road back to the city to our downtown Boise hotel.
We got up to our hotel room, and I looked at him and said “I don’t want the night to end yet. Can we go downstairs for a drink?” Knowing more about myself now, I think I needed to decompress from the excitement and energy of the day.
So we went down to the hotel restaurant, decked out in a sweaty wedding dress and tux, and pulled up 2 seats to the bar.
Just the two of us.
And we talked about our day. Our wedding day. We drank champagne and ate more cake that people around the bar bought us. We laughed about all the dancing we did. And we reminisced about the sweet words our friends and family said to us.
Out of that entire day, a day our parents spent thousands of dollars to orchestrate, what I cherish most was the 45 minutes of sitting on 2 bar stools when it was just us.
I don’t know if anyone else feels like this with the coronavirus shelter-in-place orders, but it feels like that moment at the bar on our wedding night.
It’s this quiet moment where we get to just focus on each other. (Okay, maybe not quiet, we do have kids)
You guys…all the kids’ activities, vacations, work outings, community events, and places to go in our normal lives are a blast. Serious. It’s like a big, fun, awesome party.
But right now, I’m “sitting at the bar” with my husband and two kids…when it’s just us. And we’re talking about our days. And we’re laughing about memories. And we’re making more memories that will last a lifetime.
Don’t hate me for saying this, but…it feels good.
Struggling financially during this time? Check out my CARES Act page to help you understand the approved government funding related to coronavirus.
