Ten

This morning I was sitting quietly, creating a massive to-do list for the day. My husband walked by, picked up one of my shoes and said, "What is this?"

I replied honestly, "It looks like a shoe."

Mike responded with a quick eyebrow raise, letting me know that he was choosing to ignore the sarcasm in my answer. I went back to my grocery list. Unfortunately, subtle comments were not going to be enough to dissuade this man. My husband had a point to make, and gosh darn it, he was going to make it.

"Sooo.." he said. "I've been thinking and I have an idea."
Again, my eyes shot up from my grocery list, quietly cautioning him. This sounded like a trick and I had too many things I needed to get done.

"Do you think this week we could make it a goal to take all of your shoes upstairs? I bet if you did it for one week, it might become a habit, and then the dog wouldn't eat them."

As the above photos suggest, we have had a problem with Mags gnawing on Every. Single. Pair of my shoes. (Never of Mike's.) When I come home and see my new Target wedges torn to shreds, I get upset (and also wonder when we will actually have to pay to get the dog's stomach pumped.) 

During the first few ruined pairs, Mike was empathetic. He told me he was sorry that my shoes were destroyed, but also managed to slip in a little PSA about cleaning up after myself. Now we skip right to the lecture about how if I put my shoes away, they wouldn't be attacked as chew toys and left in a sad pile, never to be worn again (despite my best efforts with duct tape and a stapler.)

I sighed, and started to protest, but ended up nodding. "Alright" I said, shocking both Mike and myself. "Will do." Mike quickly said, "thanks" and crept out of the room before I changed my mind.

Here's the secret. Ten years ago today, my life changed in a really big way. For FOUR DAYS I had agonized about whether the cute boy I met that Friday night was really going to call. He had promised he would. He got my phone number. We had danced. And laughed. And he read BOOKS. He was perfect.

At the time I was living with three other girls and they did just as they were supposed to. They assured me that this boy didn't want to look too eager... he was busy...it was a football weekend. But  I was starting to give up hope. Maybe I had accidentally given him the wrong number...should I try to contact his friend to see if the number was right? Craziness was on the horizon.

To prevent my picture from appearing as a wanted stalker on the 10:00 news, my best friend dragged me out of the house for a run. We came back and I heard a horribly annoying beeping coming from my room. My cell phone was screeching, alerting me of a missed call. (At that time, phones weren't so smart, and I don't know if it even had a silence button.) I ran to the room thinking, "Please don't let this be my mother. PLEASE for the LOVE of  GOD don't let this be my mother!"

I dialed my voicemail and a deep, slightly nervous voice started talking. "Um. Hey Jenny. This is Mike. From Friday night? I ...I was going to call you last night, but I fell asleep....Anyway, I wanted to see if you would be interested in getting together later on this week...you know if you're not busy....or whatever....ok. Give me a call. Talk to you later....if you want...."  Click.

I did what every other 23 year old who has waited for days on a cute boy to call would do. I ran through the house screaming, "HE CALLED! HE CALLED!" And then I did a little dance. Then I waited the requisite 30 minutes to call him back (just so I didn't look like I had nothing going on) and we planned to meet for dinner on Thursday. I chose a Mexican restaurant, ordered queso and a Gordito Burrito. Mike said, "I honestly can't believe you ate all that food."

The rest is history. Not all rainbows and butterflies history, but good history. We have learned and loved and changed together, and I am learning that I am not very good about putting up my stuff. So today, before I go to the grocery store and make an attempt to vacuum up all the pet hair, I am going to put my shoes up. And hope that every day I am able to make Mike as happy as I was the night I checked my messages ten years ago.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend.