Romance

Yesterday was Valentines’ Day. I had a romantic evening planned too. We were going to drop the kiddos off at a play center then have a nice, relaxed dinner to celebrate 22 Valentines’ days together. About 10:30 a.m. the plan started to change.

Kim called while I was working at a coffee shop to ask me to pick Aaliyah up ASAP. She was “throwing up” and she had to leave the school as quickly as possible. Of course, I dropped everything I was doing and rushed to her preschool. As I buckled her into her car seat, the tell-tale grin came onto her face as she asked, “Are we going to Simply Play now?” We had been duped! Worked by a 4 year old. Alas we didn’t know for sure, but it certainly seemed she had faked the grave sickness. I delivered her to the house and headed off to finish what I had started.

About 2 p.m. I finally had a chance to find a jewelry store to make a purchase I had been putting off. Nothing too fancy, but the language Kim speaks. As I spent the next hour going through possibilities with the lady on the other side of the glass case, I started answering text messages from Kim wondering when I would make it home. The kids had found the overdrive button and were kicking into high gear. Not a good mix for the headache she had been nursing for several days. I finally made it out with wallet and present in hand, jumped in the truck and started making my way through traffic. About half way home, Kim called to tell me our Shi Tzu, who had been very ill for a few days, needed to go to the vet as quickly as possible. We spent the next four hours at the vet as I wrangled the kids in the truck (We made 4 potty trips each) and Kim desperately sought answers with the vet.

Needless to say our dinner was no more. We hit Subway on the way home and picked up what at this point was filler. The romantic dinner over candle light had long since found its way off the calendar. As I looked forward to Saturday in my mind, I thought perhaps a repeat attempt might be in order. At least time spent together as we made a planned trip to Kim’s mother and father’s home a few hours away.

About 11 a.m. I realized that plan was also a bust. I found Kim wrapped around the porcelain in the restroom barely able to move. By this point, there was no leaving her. There was no traveling and certainly no dinner in our future. We jumped in the van and made our way, as smoothly as possible, to Urgent Care. An hour and a half later we were driving to the ER. Finally, two hours later, we climbed back in the van, almost normal, as we headed home.

What is the point you wonder? Love has nothing to do with Romance. In 21 years of marriage I have learned that Romance is great, but love is so much better. You see I love Kim. I am fully committed to her.  I would do pretty much anything for her. It doesn’t matter whether we have dinner in a great restaurant, take a stroll on the beach or I sit beside her in an ER bed, I just like being with her. To me, that is Romance.