Search This Blog

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Momentary Meltdown (A standard part of marriage?)


Every 3-4 months I have a minor emotional meltdown and consider sending Gary (and the difficulties of marriage) packing back to VA in lieu of my free-er, easier life back in Florida. (These only last for one night.) The reason is usually that I miss my friends and family and I don't have a lot of friends here in NC, especially not like my best friends. Essentially, I'm not getting enough quality relationship time. Now, if you've ever been through The 5 Love Languages by Dr. Gary Chapman, you know that quality time is one of the languages, but if has two subgroups. Gary and I lucked out in that we have the same love language. The only problem is that, we "speak different dialects." My quality time requires conversation, while his simply requires time together (attention and conversation not necessary.)

Three nights ago, I had my meltdown, so Gary has spent these last two nights "showing me off." We went to a flower shop on Thursday and looked around for a while, not really intending to buy anything. (Have you seen the prices????) We eventually found a little cooler tucked in a corner that had loose flowers for sale. We perused them for a little while, appreciating the snap dragons and chrysanthemums in each window until we got to the last window and saw these beautiful, delicate, pink Gerbera daisies. Of course he bought them for me! I also happened to get a yellow rose for Sophie, but she hasn't even said thank you or anything! (we're not living together this week, so it requires a text.) After that, he took me out to Mellow Mushroom and of course we sat side by side in the booth, and he only got his iPhone once, to show me something. After that, he had a band practice with some guys he used to play with. I went to listen to them beucase I've really missed hearing him play! It was so fun, I crocheted (a baby blanket for my big sissy!) while he was playing. Overall, a very emotionally fulfilling night. :)

Last night, we also spent being together "on purpose." We started out by picking a movie to watch on Netflix (he let me pick!) then we went out for dinner again (again, we're not at our house and we ran out of food last night. We never eat out twice a week, let alone two nights in a row!). We went to East Coast Wings because we are both big fans of wings. My favorite place is Ken's Wing House in Orlando, but unfortunately not any place I would ever want to take my husband. (Think about other famous wing places.... yeah.) However, apparently great wings and objectifying women are a combo deal, as we weren't wowed by these wings. The sauce was good, but they were too hot to eat! Too hot is not normally a problem for restaurant food, but when you're eating chicken off a bone, it gets even hotter on the inside. The service wasn't fabulous either, but overall we got what we came for (food!), so we went home for our movie. We watched Vanity Fair, with Reese Witherspoon. It was weird, vague movie. Gary said he read that it was a book-to-movie type thing that had been rejected in the past because it would need to be three hours to be any good. Well, apparently they were right. I was having to explain things to Gary the whole way (I'm a bit more exposed to period movies so I could pick up things more easily.) and overall it felt like a really underdeveloped story. I always wondered what it would be like to watch the movie and not have read the book, would it be confusing? (I especially thought that about the "new" Jane Eyre!). Apparently it is very confusing! Anyway, I may read the book sometime. We ended the night by taking a shower (we don't have a shower at our house, so we've been really enjoying that!) and cuddling up in bed. Happy Emily :)

I guess the point of this is, do you other married people have emotional meltdowns? Or, you other recently-moved-from-friends-and-family people, do you have emotional meltdowns?

P.S. Just to keep my accountable, I'll be back on Wednesday!

3 comments:

  1. I have meltdowns as well but it sounds like Gary is a bit more in tune with yours than my husband is with mine! I don't really blame him, mostly I keep things to myself that I should probably be talking about. I'm glad yours don't last very long! Mine don't either. They suck a little more when you have a baby, haha! Then you get to be overwhelmed with marriage AND with being a mommy! That doesn't last long either though. I miss you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. The older I get the more I find myself "needing" Michele. I need her attention, her affection, need her to want to be with me. That is actually pretty much full circle of where we were say 20 years ago. Michele was needing me and I was like, whatever, we're married, isn't that enough? Once you get do far in it, a marriage improves with age. Dramatically! I think it's Gods reward for keeping and honoring your vows. I've been married to Michele for over 25 years and I've never been happier. And I could never see myself without her. Of course we had some rough spots. VERY rough spots. But we weathered them (for better or worse) and here we are today. Expect problems, it's natural. But 'til death do you part only means the best is yet to come, from my experiences. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. hmmmm, my sweet wise daughter....I miss you so much but you don't know how happy and joy-filled it makes me to know you and Gary found each other. I'm in the midst of a meltdown right now, we all have them. Some fare better than others. Your in-laws are such amazing people and you get to learn from them too!

    ReplyDelete