July 8, 2024

Happy Anniversary

I woke up, just as I always did, the luckiest man on earth. On this day, now years ago, I entered into a sacred contract with another human being with one sole rule. This rule, our vow to each other, encompassed guidance, commitment, expectations, and partnership, all distilled down to four simple and poetic words: Don’t fuck it up.

While our love for each other was epic, another matter stole our focus. Today was my wife’s end of curriculum exam, which tested on a full year’s worth of intricate medical information. The comprehensive exam was six hours long.

Despite the energy in the air, we sipped our customary morning coffee on the couch while exchanging pleasantries. My wife was in good spirits and felt ready for the day. I was excited for her to get the test done so she could have a reprieve from the two years of pressure she had endured.

Despite yesterday’s minor bout of heat exhaustion, I felt pretty good. In all honesty, after spending twenty hours in a hot blind over four days, the thought of sitting at my desk in an air-conditioned room sounded nice. I knew the forest needed to rest, and that my continued presence had disrupted the wildlife’s normal routines. The forest needed more time to resume its regularly scheduled program.

I bid my queen farewell, giving her a kiss for good luck. She drove off with her window down, yelling repeatedly that she loved me. We both laughed at the dramatic departure, but hey, this was game day.

I sat down at my desk and spent the morning writing and catching up on a few emails. When I finished working on my personal projects for a couple of hours, I took a shower, got dressed, and dove into my work. My wife texted she arrived at her university safely and we chatted back and forth, making small talk to distract from the nerves.

Once she started her test, I kept my eye on the clock for the next six hours, knowing I would hear from her as soon as she was done. I always felt a little sympathy nervousness because I always wanted things to go perfectly for her. Of course, I knew this was an unrealistic goal, but one had to aim high.

Online meetings filled my morning, but the bad weather in Texas caused the cancelation of my afternoon appointments. A tropical storm had hit the coast, dropping heavy rain on eastern cities like Houston. A little after hour five of my wife’s exam, she texted me she was done.

My wife told me she felt like it could have gone either way, which I didn’t really know what that meant. She recounted how she felt good for the first three hours, and how by hour five, her brain felt tired, even sleepy. She called me again when she pulled over to get some food on the way home. I was happy she was done.

During my lunch break, I went to the backyard, which was just about ready to be mowed. I intended to pick up the dog poop and make a trash run, but it was so hot outside, I sat down inside the house to cool off after cleaning the yard. In Texas, we felt accustomed to the dry heat. The humidity levels in North Carolina, however, introduced a whole new type of suffering.

This afternoon, I received a UPS delivery with some camouflage items from a company called Kuiu. Their cool camo patterns and modern materials were state-of-the-art, and I really loved the gear I received. The principal item was a pullover hoodie made for summer. It was unbelievably light and had micro perforations in the material to let the air in and the heat out. It was going to be a functional piece of gear while shooting in the woods.

I also picked up a cap, boonie hat, and two neck gaiters, one for me and the other for my wife, who didn’t like the strong sun hitting her face. After trying on the gear, I knew I would purchase more products from Kuiu.

When my wife arrived home, she was tired and ready to relax. It would be a day or two before she received her exam grade, so there was that. Next, she asked me something surprising, if she could borrow the Kindle. I had just charged it and I was happy to see her buy a new true crime book and read it in the bedroom. She hadn’t read on the Kindle, or any book for pleasure, for the past two years because medical school only allowed time for constant studying.

In the evening, we gathered all the trash, drove to the service center, and arrived twenty minutes before they closed. The man who gave me a hard time last month because my placard was the wrong color was there working. He didn’t remember me, but it didn’t matter. Ten seconds out of my car and he was already laying into us for arriving at what he called closing time.

I kept the conversation light, letting the man know I had just finished work, and he complained I should get off earlier if I wanted to bring the trash. I told him my boss was very strict and that he expected me to do all my work until the last minute of my shift because that was what he paid me to do. He didn’t get the hint. My wife found his attitude unimpressive, but I was glad to leave the area with less friction than my first encounter with the man.

On the way home, I asked my wife what day it was. She replied it was Monday, so I made plans to drop the trash off every Monday right before closing time. Challenge accepted. When we walked into our house, it was still five minutes until six o’clock. I wondered how many cars were arriving at the trash service center at that moment. I hoped it was many.

While a part of me knew the man might have been going through something tough in life that made him cranky and bitter, another part of me felt sad that he had reached his age in life, still unable to feel grateful or happy. Of course, not all people had the same tools to make sense of life’s chaos. And those who did usually stumbled upon them by luck or chance.

Unsure what we wanted to eat, we made a run to the Piggly Wiggly. It had been a few weeks since I had been to the small store. We picked up some more wood pellets for the Traeger grill, two fat ribeyes, a package of beef ribs, and other assorted items. My wife snatched up a package of rescue rings, which were peach rings that were deep fried into a sweet, crunchy treat.

After a delectable meal of grilled ribeyes, baked beans, garlic bread, and a cold IPA, we sat outside together, without the dogs. We shared our thoughts and feelings about our anniversary and planned on celebrating more on the weekend. For now, just like the past two years, our only aim was to get my wife through school. The end was getting close, really close. Positive changes were just around the corner.