Home for the Holidays

It's easier for my honey and me to spend holidays with my family than with his family. We live a lot closer to my mom than to his mom, and my job isn't exactly "leave town during the busiest travel times" friendly. So we're driving to my Mummy's house for Christmas (with our dog, without our cat). We're going to take a week to visit his family next month, after the holiday rush has ended.

Surprise!

The Family Plan

My honey and I didn't mean to go shopping on Black Friday. Honestly. But when his cell phone died the evening before Thanksgiving, we weren't really left with a choice (we don't have a home phone, like any modern couple that successfully resists "bundling"). We'd already decided which carrier we would use for setting up our joint cell phone account, so we headed to the Verizon store after I got off work on Black Friday. The store was overpopulated with employees hyped up on RedBull from the rush of shoppers they'd experienced earlier in the day.

After an hour of working with one of the hyperactive employees, we had learned about the Black Friday competition happening between our local Verizon stores, decided on our our new (not matching) phones, and figured out how to get me off of my Mummy's family plan. My honey and I left the store with a bunch of free goodies and a brand new family plan, complete with data sharing. Because sharing is caring.

Happiness

On average, married people are happier than unmarried people. Why?

Happy people may be more likely to get and stay married than unhappy people. But there's more to it than that. 

A married couple is a team. Being part of a team can reduce stress. But there's more.

A person may feel that marriage provides meaning to his or her life. But there's more.

People who are married have someone who, at the end of the day, will be there no matter what. There's still more.

Some people say that simply being married makes you happy. But I disagree. Each individual is responsible for his or her own happiness: the only person who can make you happy is you. That being said, married people are accountable to their spouses about their happiness as much as about anything else, including their finances. If you are unhappy, that will affect your spouse, and if you love your spouse, you will not want him to be a victim of your unhappiness.

Maybe accountability and responsibility are the reasons that married people tend to be happier. Maybe that's just my take on it. Every marriage is different, after all.

Paperwork

I had thought that our wedding would be more or less the finale to the process of getting married. I was wrong.

We have our marriage certificate (and certified copies, just in case).

I have my new social security card. And my new driver's license and passport. We opened a joint savings account. And apparently that was the easy part. I still have to update my credit cards and other bills (not that anyone questions Bonnie Beckman versus Bonnie Beckman Spear when I have to pull out ID for a credit card purchase). And at some point we have to consolidate our cell phone plans and car insurance. How romantic.

The Right Choice

When my honey and I first sat down with our officiant, one of his first comments was that this wasn't the first relationship for either of us. What he meant by this is that we'd both experienced other people and knew (more or less) what we were looking for in a life partner. I thought I knew what he was talking about at the time, but now I think I truly understand.

Yesterday was one of my honey's and my first days off together since we got home from our honeymoon. We painted our living room. It was a perfect day, and I couldn't help thinking back to the last time I did any "remodeling:" my ex kept complaining about how much of a hassle it was going to be to paint, and it was going to take so long, and it probably wouldn't even look that good when it was done, so we might as well not even bother. So I waited until he was out of town and painted while he was away (he came back and said how amazing it looked--which wasn't enough to convince me that he should stick around as long as the wall color). This time? My honey helped with the prep work, helped with the painting, and even made me a cocktail while I was painting. It was a relaxing activity, and had a result I will be enjoying for a very long time. I definitely made the right choice.

An Observation on Married Life

People keep asking me how I like married life. My response? About the same. I'm still the same person. My honey's still the same person. We still have a dog and a cat. We still live in the same place. We still have the same jobs, eat the same foods, enjoy the same pastimes. The only things that have changed are that the government now acknowledges our relationship, and we have the same last name.

Coming Home

Our wedding was great. Our honeymoon was even better. Now that my honey and I have been home for a week, we're starting to settle back into a routine. Although, I have to admit that after being together pretty much 24 hours a day for two weeks, I missed him when we both went back to work.

To re-live some of the magic, I am posting the lyrics for "Sunny and 75" by Joe Nichols, which was our first dance:

A yellow two piece, black Ray Bans
Your bare feet covered in sand
White jet trails across the blue sky
Your ponytail showing off the sunshine
Like a postcard, out of nowhere
You get to me, you give me that smile and

I'm somewhere, somewhere sunny and 75
You and me on a beach chair
Yeah, I'm so there every time I look in your eyes
Kissing you and the salt air
I can taste it, I swear
Take me somewhere sunny and 75

It doesn't take much for you to move me
Just the way you're leaning into me
It's a holiday when we're together
I wanna stay with you forever

Somewhere, somewhere sunny and 75
You and me on a beach chair
Yeah, I'm so there every time I look in your eyes
Kissing you and the salt air
I can taste it, I swear
Take me somewhere sunny and 75

You're like the fast lane West bound
You feel like a windows rolled down
I cant wait until we get there, somewhere

Somewhere sunny and 75
You and me on a beach chair
Yeah, I'm so there every time I look in your eyes
Kissing you and the salt air
I can taste it, I swear
Take me somewhere sunny and 75