13.
The guy was fucking wasted and had a booger hanging from his nose but I still genuinely thought he was adorable and wanted to be close to him.
14.
Maybe 20 years ago so, I was dating this woman and things had gotten serious enough that we were doing Christmas with my family. It was late in the evening, hours after dinner and during that time when everyone sitting around drinking beer/wine and playing cards or something. We were just talking about stuff, stuff in general, and somehow the subject of underground homes came up.
This is where I made a mistake. Everybody knows that when you are in a relationship with someone, especially a new one, you have to be careful not to tell them what you really think. It’s just… known… That you try to present as normal of a face to them as possible and part of that means hiding the things that really interest you.
That’s kind of what we’re taught, at least, right? If you don’t do this, then respective meet sees all the weird stuff and will probably nope out of there to find someone less strange. This is one of the reasons why hanging katanas and anime scrolls from the walls of your apartment might be contra indicated, for example.
So I made a mistake, I accidentally told her that I was interested in the idea of maybe someday building an underground home.
Almost immediately I realized this was a problem. I just told this woman that I thought underground houses were interesting and that I could see myself living in one. That’s the kind of thing a crazy person says, that’s not what normal people talk about. Conversation moved on to other subjects and I hoped that she hadn’t really heard me.
The next morning, we got onto the freeway to head back to Los Angeles and we had a 12 to 15 hour drive ahead of us. As we enter the highway, she started talking. “About last night… You mentioned that you were interested in underground houses…”
Shit.
SHIT.
If we were going to have this talk, if we were going to get into an argument and I was going to have to defend myself or figure some way to worm my way out of this without her thinking that I was a total loser, it would have been better if it was near the end of the drive but no, I was trapped in this car for the next eternity and this drive was going to SUCK.
“I was thinking, “she continued, “do you think it might be possible to purchase those steel shipping containers to use as the structure? I don’t know if they are strong enough to hold dirt on top of them, but it seems like it might be worth researching…“
What. WHAT?! Not only was she not judging this idea, she was contributing to it. We spent the next few hours brainstorming and it was one of the best road trips I’ve ever had.
Oh, aftermath… I married the fuck out of that woman. We have a house (above ground, for now), two teenagers, a dog, and an asshole of cats and we love the heck out of each other. Once in a while, we take a look at land prices outside of town or watch for deals and earth moving equipment because one of these days…. One of these days, we’ll start digging. Together.
15.
We had argued before he left for work so I angrily ignored it when he called. Almost immediately after that, his boss called and said he had fallen 32 feet from a ladder and was on the way to the ER. I have never felt anything like the fear I felt then. My whole body went cold and I knew it was because I loved him.
I drove so fast that I beat the ambulance. He fractured his spine in three places and gashed both shins down to the bone. My daughter and I spent her 5th birthday by his side in the hospital, and even through the pain meds the only thing he worried about was that he had ruined her birthday, and that’s when I knew we would be a family. We will celebrate our 15th anniversary in April.