I just got through reading my friend's blog. She and her husband celebrated their ninth wedding anniversary over the weekend. She wrote about this fancy-pants restaurant they went to, and their special traditions that they share. It was very sweet. I let her know that my anniversary is always the same too. We celebrate student style, I suppose. Or just really poor and overwhelmed style.
Our running anniversary tradition is to visit the local Arby's, and sadly, usually bring our kids too. You see, by our first anniversary we already had little Will. He was only a couple of weeks old, and my only babysitter in town had just had a baby too, so she was out of the question. So being tired, poor, and overwhelmed we loaded up the little one and headed to what we deemed as a classier option as far as fast food goes. During said dinner, we talked very little. It was a race to try and eat before the baby started to cry. I still ended up trying to discretely nurse the baby and eat my chicken fingers (dipped in ketchup, no less-Josh thinks that is incredibly white trash) and still somehow share a romantic moment with my husband of one year. We were in and out and on our way home about 15 minutes after we arrived. We liked that tradition so much that it has just sort of stuck...I'd like to say that it is because we are sentimental and just couldn't let go of such a precious moment, but really it is because we are still broke!
Being broke has greatly shaped our five years together. In that time in efforts to save money we were assistant managers at our first apartments in St. George. It was student housing, and really was a great place for us to start. Aside from the benefit of having our rent reduced for our help in the office, I also served as what I believe was an incredible example of the importance of safe sex and abstinence. Our apartment was in St. George-wicked hot! We had a pool at the complex, and Will was born in August, so naturally to escape the heat I was going to the pool. So there I sat, 8 months pregnant with all those cute little college girls in the strings they had fashioned around themselves in the spirit of a swimming suit, as a shining beacon of their future if they didn't put on some modest clothing!
Next...the downtown Salt Lake City apartment. We were the full-time, live in management there. A guy named Arno (that's right, like Arnold, only without the 'l' and the 'd') was my boss. A real gem. It was trashy and run down, and about 100 years old. We only stayed for a couple of months, and then I we moved again to a safer local where I babysat for Josh's sister (to earn extra money) until Isaac was born.
Now we are in Wisconsin. Our neighborhood is nice, and not at all scary. We have a beautiful park that serves as our backyard, so the appearance of being broke has for the most part vanished (unless you see Josh in his "comfortable clothes" just know that he wears those ratty old things by choice, not because I wouldn't make some sacrifices to get him in some shorts that have the seam intact all through the crotch, and some t-shirts that aren't frayed around the edges and stained all over. )
Looks can be deceiving. We are two years into our medical school journey, that means 5 or 6 to go, and here are some of our temporary fixes. I will spare you the details of the how it got broke, and just fill you in on the what we do to live with it.
1) We are unable to use the original vent system set up for our dryer...again, forget the how come?...instead, I bought a 20ft dryer hose that I have to extend through my kitchen and out my back door into the garage in order to dry our clothes.
2) Our washer works, part of the times. It runs fine, but occasionally we end up with water on our floor. As a result, I stand in front of the washer the whole cyle to make sure I don't flood my basement, and say my "please let it work this time" prayer so I can just get some clean underwear. As a result, I do most of my washing at the laundry mat...who has time to watch their clothes wash, right?
3) I adopt the attitude of just don't touch it! Somethings get broke in the house, and because neither Josh or myself are handy, we don't really know how to fix it, so when my parents came I started in on the just don't touch that spill. Namely, the towel rack in the bathroom they were staying in. My dad always warned me that those weren't made to hold elephants, when we used to swing on it, and he was right. Will pulled it right out of the wall. My fix was to just not touch it and use some putty to give it the illusion of being in proper order. Well, my dad thought that was silly, and before he was back in Utah the towel rack was fixed. Thanks dad!
4) Many doors don't lock properly in our house. Instead of fixing this problem due to lack of time, money, and know how, we instead lose a little of that sense of modesty our parents worked so hard to build up in us, and now we aren't even shocked when people just walk in on us when we are on the toilet.
5) I saved the best for last. Our 1990 4-Runner, still running strong 18 years later, has a battery problem. Apparently, it's a ghost car, and even when the car isn't on, there is some electrical problem that causes the battery to drain. My solution...unhook the battery every time we get in and out. I get to wal-mart, pop the hood and unhook the battery. Grocery store, same thing. Same at church. This has worked well for us as long as it's me who drives it. Josh is a scatter-brained and usually forgets. The other week at church he forgot to hook it back up when he got to the car, and ended up asking the Stake President for a jump. Boy was he embarrassed when he realized that he just forgot to attach the cable.
We wouldn't trade any of it for anything though. It makes me appreciate driving our car that works correctly so much more, and visiting someones house that has doors that lock feels like a real treat. It's the little things.
