You Say What?

For the first time in nearly 5 years, I took a little trip with the husband (who I call Jman. I know it’s stupid, but it has one less syllable than Julian and so I consider it a time saver) for our 17 year anniversary.  My sister took pity on us and let us drop our kids off at her house.  Because she can deal with the whack-a-do-ness that comes with my kids like few people will.

It was so sweet, really, the scene of their drop off. We each carried their bags in and as soon as we could, and we left. We excitedly drove away with our GPS pointing us towards peace and quiet.

Or as I like to say, mad passionate sleep.

Before I knew it, we were having sushi, heading off to listen to singer-songwriters at the famous Bluebird Café in Nashville (Nashvegas) and having a fabulous time.

It’d been a while since we’d been away or even on a date. I know it’s a sad state of affairs, but we were rectifying the situation by righting all the wrongs of no alone time together with our 42 free and clear hours. Still, it took us a few hours to understand each other because we didn’t prepare a language primer before traveling from Atlanta to Nashville for our hook up weekend. We wasted at least 4 of our 42 hours trying to get back our very specific language of love, so, next time, I’m printing this out to carry with me.

For example…

When I say, “I don’t want to go on a 4 hour tour around the city.”

I really mean “If we do, we won’t be able to take a nap.”

When he says, “That was great, listening to live music… the best I’ve seen.”

He really means, “We never go out anymore.”

When I say, “Don’t you think that is kind of far?”

I really mean, “Are you crazy? I don’t want to walk 4 blocks in this 95 degree heat.”

When he says, “Want a drink?”

He really means, “Will that help your clothes fall off in a pile right now?”

When I say, “Late breakfast tomorrow?”

I really mean, “Maybe after sleeping in, I can get lucky tomorrow.”

When he says, “I’m just going to close my eyes then go for a run.”

He really means, “Let’s take a little nap for 4 hours then have dinner at 10pm.”

It was a great weekend learning to just be with each other again. We decided to have another 42 hours to ourselves before another 5 years pass.  Waiting that long would be insanely stupid and we both really mean it.

I think we’ll bring fewer clothes, more cocktails and more expectations to sleep.

We had to pick up the kids at noon on Sunday, and we were on time and well-rested. Surprisingly, the drive home passed without a kid drama incident or creative cussing for that matter. When we got home, there was no interpretation needed for the language of love that exists in our home.

“What’s for dinner?” really did mean what’s for dinner.