Me again, great memories flooding back

[ieh21]

Yesterday was our engagement anniversary, but a friend of mine also reminded me that it was the anniversary of the airing of a tv show we participated in. Joe and I (and this other couple) participated in an American home decorating show tens years ago. It was one of our claims to fame.

 

You can imagine it was really exciting to be on the show, and we were fascinated by the activity around us, the process of filming reality tv wasn't really well-known yet (for example, who knew they edited so much). We had just bought a new house, we had been married about a year, we didn't have children, we were beautiful and I was skinny. Watching the show again, I thought I'd be crying my eyes out, but no. Since his death, I hadn't seen Joe in a video taken prior to his illness. The only ones I have are some taken in his last month. He held the camera throughout our relationship, so you never see him. Here, he was himself. Funny, sometimes in a corny way. Expressing himself in his usual deadpan delivery. Unflappable.

 

There's even a scene where we had been having an argument over some decorating element and the crew walked in on us, asked us to start having that argument again with the cameras rolling. Of course, in typical married people fashion, we had lost track of the reason for the original argument and it took us a few takes to look natural again. And it's so funny because it's exactly us arguing for the rest of our lives: he says something, I present to him a counter-argument, he ignores it and repeats his concern, I repeat my counter-argument. We could both be really stubborn (also known as pigheaded) and while it drove me insane in the later years of our marriage, seeing it in action made me smile broadly. That's it right there, that's us.

 

I hope I remembered, when the stress of life started to make itself felt, when the children came and our patience with each other was dampened, I hope I remembered then how much we loved each other and how happy we really were. It's easy now to be convinced that we were in that state of mind, but in the daily grind, when you're living it, I think you do lose track of the true essence of your love. I really hope for my past self that I always remembered that scene in the living room we were decorating and always felt the love the way I do now, even in the intense fights we sometimes had.

 

Joe: I'm really not comfortable with the nipples on the wall.

Me: sure, but they can remove them if they don't like them.

Joe: but they're nipples. If this was my house...

Me: sure, but if it was your house, you'd just remove them.

Joe: I have no problem telling the decorator we hate the nipples.

Me: It'll be ok. Trust me.

Joe: but they're nipples...

 

[they weren't pornographic. They were white ceramic mushrooms hung sideways on the wall, 8 of them, and hung that way they looked like breasts with nipples. They really did. And our friends removed them as soon as the cameras packed up and left.]

 

There's no real point in posting this. I'm just so happy to see us happy. And it's helping me to remember all the context around the tv show, the shopping for the house, the buying it, moving in etc. All great memories revived.

[Virgo]

Thanks for sharing that memory with us.

[linda5]

I enjoyed your memory!

[calimom]

Can I tell you how much I loved this story?

 

(nipples, she said nipples  ;D )

[Euf]

LOL  I love it!  Isn't it great when we get to the place where the memories can make us smile?  Thanks for sharing your memory.

[cathyr]

Yes, even after all these years, those memories still make me smile and will forever.  Thanks for sharing your sweet memories! :-)