Garfield

So it's Wednesday, and the kids have yet another snow day today...which for us is totally fine, since we spent the whole first week full of snow days in Disneyworld, but for everyone else around these parts, it's getting a little old. Today we ventured out of the house to run to the post office, the library and a quick run into the grocery...but I'm happier right here, puttering around my kitchen, weeding out the junk drawer, planning meals, and listening to the kids play. Surprisingly, they are still getting along and having fun together.

For the most part, anyway. Hey, I never said they were perfect!!! They've played Wii, a couple of computer games, read some books, made creatures with Bendaroos, and built elaborate creations with Legos. Now they are watching a Garfield movie we picked up at the library today. Garfield...a cat who loves lasagna...oh, how Garfield makes me smile.

I will always have a special place in my heart for Garfield. Why? Because at the beginning of 1991, I was hanging out with (not dating!) this fun guy I had met early in January. He had graduated with some of my friends from a nearby country school, and I thought he was really fun and totally laid-back, which I like. Now, I didn't want to be in a relationship, and he knew it (I had just gotten out of a long one...and it was not pretty), so I felt like he was a really safe person to hang out with and have some fun. Well, after weeks of doing all kinds of fun things together and just having a really good time, he showed up at my house on Valentine's Day with a single rose and a card that had Garfield on it. I don't remember what the outside of the card said...something about being the perfect Valentine...but on the inside it said, "kind of like lasagna with sneakers". I thought it was totally sweet, innocent, and lighthearted, and well...I liked it. I liked the no-pressure thing, of course...but I also realized that he knew what I needed. He was paying attention, and it mattered to him. And from that day on, I looked at Mr. Barry Kuck a little differently.

Now... he says he knew from the start that I was "the one", and he needed to play his cards right or I'd bolt. And that's probably true. I would have...it wouldn't have mattered how much fun he was or how much I liked him. I wasn't ready. But if there's one thing you can say about Barry, it's that he has a ridiculous amount of patience when it comes to doing the right thing and getting what he wants. Lots and lots of it. And apparently, it works for him...wouldn't you say? I had no intention of dating him...ever. I had no intention of even letting him think I was going to date him! But see how that slow, no-pressure, patience works? He just hung out, made sure I was having a good time, didn't pressure me, and let me fall in love with him slowly. And here I had thought all along that I had the upper hand!! Funny how that works....