Life On The Other Side

The hubby and I are slowly combining our lives from me changing my last name to his to putting our clothes in the same hamper to having one car insurance. Of course there are many perks that come with marriage perhaps more for the hubby than for myself, I think. For example, he can proudly declare to the world that I am “his woman” because I have his last name. Okay, so he’s not really the kind of guy that would knock me over the head and drag me into his cave but I know it makes him feel good that I agreed to take his last name and not 1) keep mine or 2) hyphenate. Another perk for the hubby is that I have been washing all his clothes. Bear in mind that I have the time to be doing this chore since I have yet to secure employment. But there is no perk for me to wash his clothes other than I am doing mine? I guess that’s not even a perk. More importantly, I know he truly appreciates that I am doing this for him. He still irons his work clothes (I prefer to purchase clothes that don’t necessarily need ironing so he will iron his own clothes). We, also, finally talked to our respective car insurance companies and found out that my car insurance company is much more cheaper than his. Perhaps the perk of being a longtime customer but nonetheless a perk for the hubby. This doesn’t mean that the perks work one-way. For example, I don’t have to worry about health insurance because now I am covered under the hubby. After our experience earlier this month, it is so important for us to have health insurance. We offer each other many perks being married including having someone to take care of the other in times of illness. And many of our expenses are shared instead of having to be shouldered individually. In the end, having the unconditional love of your life’s companion and their commitment is the biggest perk of marriage

The in-laws drove into town Friday evening. They live about a three and a half hour drive from us so while it’s not too far, it’s also not too close. It was nice to see them since we haven’t seen them for about two months, I think. In all honesty, I think they wanted to see more of where we live since they’ve only been here two prior times and didn’t get to do much. On Friday we went out to dinner at PF Changs which is an upscale Chinese restaurant with places all over the U.S. They hadn’t been there before and seemed to enjoy the food. On Saturday we went visited a small town near where we live that had several antique shops. The town is reminiscent of small town America with sidewalks and shops including a local barber. There is even a railroad track that runs through its main street and while we were there, a train passed through stopping all traffic. I found a very quaint china creamer that was made in Japan and my MIL (mother-in-law) found a bunny plate. In all, a very productive and fun time. After lunch we visited the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden which is one of the top 20 botanical gardens in the US according to HGTV. It was absolutely beautiful with the right mixture of flowers, plants and water fountains. If it wasn’t for the absolutely hot afternoon, we would have wandered more. That evening we had a nice dinner at Maggiano’s and called it a night. Sunday before they left, we went to a small Japanese restaurant that the hubby and I found one Sunday. The food was delicious and they enjoyed themselves. In all, not a very difficult weekend with the in-laws.

My FIL (father-in-law) commented that the hubby and I were absolutely easy to get along with and that he had an enjoyable weekend. I guess the hubby and I don’t necessarily like to plan out every single thing we do but rather talk about it and hope that we do something everyone will enjoy. There are certain things that may need to be planned out as we discovered such as dinner and making reservations ahead of time but as far as anything else, we try to “go with the flow” so to speak. So, yes, we are easygoing.

So the in-laws (my in-laws, that is) are driving up from Georgia to visit us. I really couldn’t ask for a better set of in-laws and only solidifies why I love the hubs so much. They are such warm and wonderful people who made me feel completely comfortable the instant I met them. Granted I was worried that perhaps under the circumstances the hubs and I met (online relationship service), they might not been too keen. Of course that was coupled with the fact that I was living in Sin City (aka viva Las Vegas) at the time. But they welcomed me with open arms and was delighted when the hubs and I announced we were getting married.

Now that the hubby and I have settled in, they announced they’d like to come and visit. They’ve been here before for brief visits but I suspect they’d like to explore more of this city. Not a problem since the hubs and I haven’t really explored it much ourselves except recently. I’m sure mom-in-law as well as dad-in-law have a pretty good idea of what they’d like to do. They haven’t really mentioned anything in particular at all but I’m sure they won’t hesitate to suggest something. As for me, I need to get our place in tip top shape. The last of the boxes are still haunting me as well as the low level of messiness around the place. In general our place is pretty neat but I’d like it to be just a tad bit neater. Fortunately the hubs and I seem to have the same level of tolerance when it comes to being messy. I’m really not sure what would have happened if one of us was extremely neat and the other not.

Over the weekend, the hubby and I drove to Nashville to attend an “encore” wedding of one of my friends. Neither of us have ever really been to Nashville meaning we’ve never really stopped and stayed. I would guess that neither of us would put Nashville on our list of “must-go again.” Of course we weren’t really there to vacation but I’m not sure you would want to go there to vacation in the first place. The encore wedding ceremony which turned out to be a confirmation of vows was really for the groom’s family and friends who could not make the original wedding in Hawaii. Well the hubby and I couldn’t either so this was our way of joining in on the celebration. The ceremony was brief and not entirely formal with a viewing of a DVD made by the couple. The baby pictures and the formal wedding portion of the DVD was great but the “music video” part was a bit too cheesy for me even though I, myself, had only gotten married a couple of months ago. It’s not something the hubby and I would think of doing, thankgoodness. Following the ceremony was a BBQ luncheon in the church hall. The whole affair was very Nashville. I’m sure my friend would not have done something like this if it wasn’t for her husband and his family. Overall it was very nice.

Nashville itself doesn’t appeal to me. Yes there are a lot of historical sites and things to do but nothing in particular I really wanted to do. And the things I would have even considered didn’t fall into our schedule so we did the things we like best: shopping and watching movies. At least we can say we came, we saw and we conquered (sort of) Nashville.

I like blogging. And, yes, I do have a blog right now that I am thinking about taking down. Why you ask? Well, recently my husband and I experienced a very personal loss and I would have blogged it but I realized that there were some people out there from my former workplace that occasionally visited the site. And I just didn’t feel like writing about it and having them tell everyone there. Whether it’s my former workplace or my current workplace, I like to keep my personal life just that: personal. And so I am here.

I’m a mid-30 something-year-old, newlywed living in the southeast trying to learn a new city, a new culture and a new lifestyle. Yes, I fell in love and I fell hard for someone I met through an online relationship service. This is just my side of the story of our life here. He’s born and raised in the South while I was born and raised in the middle of the Pacific. We met while I was living in the middle of a desert on the west coast and now we make our home here in one of the fastest growing banking cities in the east.

(updated 9/15/05)