Will pulled into the driveway last night around 6:30pm.
I need to talk to you, he said.
I was already outside, walking Daisy, so he parked the car and then fell in step beside us as we ambled down the street.
I didn't get you a birthday present, he told me. I've been wracking my brain for something that's you but within our budget and---
You've written me a week of blog posts, I told him. Even if hundred dollar bills were shooting out of the poop tub, that's a pretty damned good present.
But before Slackmistress Birthday Week, Will wrote this. In the reality show that is our online life, there are moments that still make me swallow back tears, unprepared for the emotional punch in the gut followed by but I'm still okay, I can laugh about it that resonate through a lot of his writing. Soon after we met, I told him that he was the sort of guy that has every reason to blame Everyone Else. Society. His parents. School.
You can spin the wheel of blog roulette and discover yet another story in Will's catalog that makes you laugh but also makes you think you should be way more screwed up. There are few people who have reason to look at the world through mistrustful, hate-colored eyes and yet I have never met someone more open, more forgiving, more confident in the fact that people are essentially good, deep down inside.
That open heart is also paired with a writing talent so staggering that some days I wonder why I blog at all. Will and I rarely argue, but when we do it sounds something like this.
Me: I can't wait until you write your memoir and go on Oprah.
Will: I'm not going on Oprah.
Me: Oh, you're going on Oprah.
Will: I'm not going on Oprah and being a big crybaby.
Me: Oprah is the key to the fat money cake!
Will: I'm not going on Oprah!
Me: FAT MONEY CAKE!
We decided to get married six weeks after dating, which made more than a few people (and perhaps a few of you) raise your eyebrows, skeptical that such a union could work out. A friend of mine, treading lightly, said you don't really know someone after a few weeks.
I responded the the one thing we all know for sure is that the future is uncertain. Surviving when life is easy isn't exactly difficult. It's those times when you're swimming against the current and trying desperately to keep your head above water that's the test of any relationship. While he was handsome and funny and smart and snarky and could charm the pants off of any girl in the blogosphere, those were the reasons to date.
But Will's someone who can not only swim*, but he can swim with a smile.
That's the guy I want to marry, I told her. And I did.
*But don't actually make him SWIMswim, 'cause he doesn't know how. (And he's totally going on Oprah.)
Tonight we'll be out celebrating my birthday for casual drinks around the coffin-shaped pool at the (haunted) Hotel Fig around 8pm. Please feel free to drop by!
Please check out another story of Love in the Time of Social Media (Twitter!) at Gwen Bell's Blog!
