Be Careful What You Wish For.

Omg, I got so busy doing a natural light – catch it while you can – shoot that I almost forgot to write. Since my office underwent a slight re-do over the holidays I’m working with a smaller work table, placed in a different spot, which – duh – I realized has much better morning and early afternoon light than my old work table ever had. Duh. And the room will stay this way with smaller work spaces which can readily and quickly be taken down because dog gone it, I’m planning to be in my new house by Amber’s birthday (May 3)

My whole morning is running about an hour behind my usual schedule anyway. That’s allowed on a Sunday, isn’t it? I slept a little later, walked a little longer and ate a little larger breakfast than I typically do. I don’t know if any of that has to do with the fact that Charlie’s out of town this weekend, but it’s interesting. *wink*

That whole situation caused me to do some thinking. (Which really is a lot to ask on a lazy Sunday morning ~ thinking.) Since I record my life in images that’s how I keep track of time. So I moved my cursor over that "ruler of time" at the top of my photo files to see when the last time was that Charlie and I were apart. And just as I thought, it was August of 2005. He was in Dallas checking on his branch there and I flew down later in the week to join him. Almost exactly a year ago (January 4) he sold all of his companies. He’s been developing a new business for the past year. From our living room. We’ve been together night ‘n day, 24/7 for 16 months. Night ‘n day. 24/7.

For 10 years I complained that he was married to his career. I never saw him and when I did he was preoccupied or exhausted. So, for the last 16 months, we’ve been together. Night ‘n day. 24/7. Be careful what you wish for. *wink*

What have I (I dare say “we”) learned from this change of life? You mean besides, be careful what you wish for? I have learned that I love my husband dearly. He is funny and patient and kind and smart and has a huge heart. I’ve also learned that a little of him goes a long way. I have learned that I need my space. I need a lot of space. Daily.

I have learned that I need a routine, a schedule. I don’t function well without one. Some call me anal (we’ve got to think of a better word ~ that conjures up visions of places I don’t want to go… even the thesaurus doesn’t want to go there.). I prefer to say I’m “organized.” I mean, is it bad to say that Monday is laundry day (Mom would totally agree) or Tuesday and Wednesday are for working with images; Thursday is for cleaning the house and Friday is slated for destination shoots? If I didn’t schedule my life, I would never get anything accomplished. Trust me. I wouldn’t.

Charlie, on the other hand, has always flown by the seat of his pants and somehow he always comes out a star. He was multi-tasking before the word was even thought of. And if you search “procrastination” in Wikipedia, they’ll give you a link to him. He is a master of the spoken word. He can charm the most hardened of personalities. And a friend once said to me, "Cindi, Charlie could talk to a dead man. And sell him something." So, you can see, in that respect, he drives me crazy.

I’ve learned that we are very competitive. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about cooking or photography or vacuuming or losing weight. We’re competing. Thank goodness we finally admitted it and started laughing about it or we’d be sunk. So we’ve definitely learned that we can’t work together. It’s hard enough standing in the kitchen – on opposite sides of the room – and not tell each other a better way to do something.

He knows I say all of this with love. And I’m not divulging anything here that we haven’t talked about. And laughed about. Lesson One – never lose your sense of humour!

On the flip side, I’ve also learned that we really are best friends. We have inside jokes. We have history. We can, to a point, give each other a look and know, without words, what we we’re talkin’ about. I can't add and he can't spell; so we balance each other out. We travel well together because we like the same things. We like walking around for no particular reason. We love good food and good wine. We like similar types of music (usually). We love nature. We love art. We love beaches and mountains and can get lost in the endless ebb and flow of the ocean for hours upon hours.

So as trite as it may sound, I do believe absence makes the heart grow fonder. He’s only been gone for 2 days and I can’t wait to see him tonight and hear about his weekend.

I'm sure I had more fun than he did. Not that I'm competing or anything...

Gotta’ run ~ that light’s not going to stay there all day!