The Leading Lady

Ask a married man if his wife is a great spouse and I am sure most will say yes. (many of them will be lying and I feel bad for them) Then ask them what makes their wife great and you may get a lot of abstract answers. i.e. she loves me, she does *blank* for me, she's just great...etc. Where I may be able to understand how easy it is to forget that a wife isn't just part of who you are but is also a person in her own right. So what makes this particular person great, why does she do those things for me, what does she love about me.

Last month I was laid off from my job of 6 years, I went from stay at work dad, to stay at home dad. This was such a disastrous blow to my family, my wife Twingly and myself that I didn't realize how much it would help me remember not only who my wife was, but what I really loved about her and why she loved me.

The first thing we dealt with was the shock of being laid off for real. The fear of it had been there for a while due to the business I was in. Newspapers just aren't a good place to hang your hat these days. Even an IT help desk and network administrator isn't safe in that kind of environment. I took the news well and was thanked for being gracious on my way out and drove straight home. When I got home Twingly was waiting for me, she didn't say anything, she just hugged me and help on like I was going to float away without her acting as my ballast.

Once we were able to talk again, after the kids were in bed, we discussed finances. This was a fun conversation filled with butterflies and unicorns. During the discussion my car came up (ok so I brought it up) I decided that we should sell it since she didn't run and we didn't have the money to fix her right now. I am pretty sure her response involved my manhood and a hammer but I am fuzzy on the details.

The MKIII Supra is my dream car, I have wanted one since I was in high school and I finally got one that served us very well for several years.

She (the car) needs a transmission and is home to a new deadly form of wasp I am calling *uberwasp from hell* and it seems they are all 5 foot long with hypodermic needles for stingers. I still love her and she is the best car in the world. At this point Twingly has decided we can find other things to sell to make up the difference until I find a new job.

My next great idea had already been discussed anytime we were in financial trouble, with the same outcome everytime.

My Pool sticks are both one of a kind custom cues that I purchased before I met my wife. The one on the right was a good deal at $2500, and the one on the left was a steal at $1000. Prather cues are like gold to me and I used these cues to help put my wife through college and to pay bills when we were really hurting. They have paid for themselves many, many, many times over. Once again Twingly chimes in to remind me of her threat... "if you sell your pool sticks we will get a divorce, because if you will sell them you will sell anything!" I can't argue with this but I try everytime.

So to get back to why my wife is the greatest woman in the world to me, she GETS me. She knows I will sacrifice anything of mine for her and the kids even the things I would otherwise never part with. I have very few inanimate objects that mean anything to me but the ones I do, she treats with the same revelry. she doesn't try to change me and accepts me for who I am and loves me anyways. This post is for her and I hope that other husbands can take this and the take a step back and realize why they love their wife and enjoy it instead of being caught up in the crazy world and getting ahead. I also hope that other wives can see this and remember that just because something doesn't matter to you it doesn't mean it isn't important. I owe everything to my wife and she is the one I couldn't live without.