We lucked out and found a very roomy 1 bedroom apartment in Arlington, VA. We were a few blocks from the Metro so Melissa had an easy commute to downtown Washington DC. And while we were a few blocks from where I was working at B. Dalton Booksellers, I had recently gotten promoted to assistant manager at the small Tysons II store so I ended up having to drive to work each day.
I will never forget that first Monday as a married couple living together. It was early in the morning and I was doing what I liked to do best at this time-sleep. Suddenly there was a loud and annoying noise coming from the bathroom. At first I could not imagine what the noise was or who was making that racket. Slowly I came to my senses and realized that it was my new bride drying her hair with the hair dryer. Once I realized what the noise was and who was making it, I simply smiled and rolled over. It did not bother me anymore. After the initial shock, I did not mind the morning hair drying. It reminded me how lucky I was to find someone with which to share my life. And 15 years later, my wife occasionally gets up before me and drys her hair. But she is so nice to go in the other room and do it. I never asked. She is just considerate that way.
Now that were were married, we came up with new routines. The location of our apartment was actually ideal for exercising. We both had bikes and we lived very close to the 4 Mile Run bike trail which hooks up with the W&OD trail as well as the Mount Vernon trail. Melissa and I started biking pretty much daily. We would get home from work, change and then hit the trail. Sometimes we would do 6 to 10 miles, sometimes we would do even more. On weekends, we would go for longer rides. In fact there is a great ride that I recommend if you are ever biking up in this area. We rode our bikes into downtown DC by way of National Airport. There is a park there where you can stop and watch the planes land at the airport. The planes come in super low. It is loud but pretty amazing. After taking in a few landings and having a banana or two, we would make the long trek home. The trek home was a bit more difficult because it was pretty much up hill the whole way. But after we got back to the apartment, we always felt great. Not only were we exercising but we were spending quality time together.
One day we decided to sign up for the MS 50. I had done the MS-150 with my brother and his wife. The 150 is two days of biking-75 miles each day. It was great fun although my butt might beg to differ. The MS 50 is a 1 day event covering 50 miles. The idea is to raise money for research into combating Multiple Sclerosis. You raise some money and then ride a fully supported course with breaks every 15 miles or so. We hammered out the course pretty easily. Fifty miles really was easy for us since we had been doing so much biking.
In addition to the bike riding, I also started playing soccer with a different group of people. My older brother Erik and his friends wanted to play on a co-ed team. So I joined up. Erik and I had never really had a chance to play that much soccer together and this was a fun opportunity to play competitive yet slightly more relaxed soccer. Erik's wife Melissa (yes, another Melissa Rosen) is an accomplished soccer player. Between Erik and Melissa and their friends, we had a pretty fun team where we all knew each other socially before playing as a team.
So even after getting married, the routine was sort of the same. Soccer on weekends, biking during the week with some long bike rides with my Melissa. Life was good and I was happy. Melissa and I were getting to know each other even better. Even though we knew each other pretty well after spending so much time together, we still learned more about each other as we grew together in that first year of marriage.
Thanks again for reading. Coming up next, "the big move."
1 comment:
This is very interesting. It's very true: having shared interests and hobbies really enriches the husbasnd-wife relationship.
Keep it coming. We're enjoying it!
Post a Comment