Day 939: Our Valentine’s Day Song

St. Valentine’s Day.  All the curmudgeons out there will try and tell you that St. Valentine’s Day was created by greeting card companies and chocolate retailers.  But February 14^th is the actual the, honest to goodness, Catholic Feast Day for St. Valentine, the patron Saint of happy marriages, love, happiness, and the plague.

Sure, the holiday has become over marketed throughout the years, but not unlike St. Patrick… when a good party is involved everyone wants to be Catholic, at least for the day. ;)

The fact is this… if you remove all the marketing BS, you are still going to be left with the Feast Day of St. Valentine; a day to reflect on a happy marriage, love, happiness… and to a lesser extent… the plague… which is all pretty much the same thing.

 And for my day of happy marriage reflection, so far away, I’m going to keep it simple… yet topical. 

When Serena and I first started dating she was living in Nashville, while I was living in Atlanta… roughly three and a half hours away by car.  This is nothing when you think about the distance between us now… but it sets the stage for an ongoing theme in our relationship: physical distance.

All those years ago, it didn’t take us long to know that we were destine to spend our lives together and just as quickly we picked out ‘our song’.  A song that best articulated the beginning and subsequent growth in our relationship… a song that we would listen to indecently on rainy days… a song that I secretly had the guitar player at our wedding play as we walked back up the aisle as husband and wife… a song that could have been construed as being a bit cheesy at the time that has somehow lasted, only to become more poignant as we pass from year to year together.

I love you honey!  And I’ll see you soon!

Ladies and gentlemen… Jack Johnson:

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seZMOTGCDag)

PS: Happy birthday Dad!

Day 911: When You Think You Know Someone

In a matter of months Serena and I will be celebrating our six year anniversary… on separate continents… a fate we have become accustomed to.  However, during those six years the one thing I thought I could say is this:

“Serena is pretty consistent.” 

She prefers to read non-fiction, likes her entertainment uplifting or funny, she only wears ‘au Blanc’, she always goes for simple dangly earrings before anything with bling, and most importantly… she detests fruit in her salads and savory dishes.

Seriously… the last one is very important.  During our first month of dating I made the mistake of serving her Italian chicken with rice and grapes… good thing I have a nice smile because I might have lost her.

Now, you need to understand that Serena loves fruit.  Raw fruit, cooked fruit… it doesn’t matter.  She loves it… but if you combine the fruit with a cup of rice or throw some mandarin oranges on top of a salad she starts to gag.

However… I not here to judge… I have a similar issue with milk and fruit juices.  I like milk and juice just fine… but drinking them out of a plastic cup is the most disgusting thing in the world. 

For Serena, it’s not so much the fruit as it is the sweetness.  This phobia of savory fruit also branches out into a distain for Chinese cuisine and other styles that incorporates sugar into everyday meals.

So, you can imagine my surprise when I returned home for my R&R to find Serena cooking savory dishes with raisins and figs.  All though these are dried fruits… they certainly added a certain sweetness to the dish.  Especially, a wonderful stuffed squash recipe Serena was excited to roll out for my return.

I have to say, the stuffed squash with pork and raisins… and God only knows what else, was one of the BEST things Serena has EVER made.  I was dumbfounded.  Not dumbfounded that Serena made an excellent meal.  On a bad day, Serena is a spectacular and adventurous cook.  In the last six years we may have had only a handful of duds… but for the most part, she prepares pretty amazing food (especially since he is also balancing two boys… and not that she has too… if you are an avid reader of SchutzHappens you’ll know that I love to cook too, in fact I cook all my own food over here in Pakistan… and I still get sick… go figure). 

Anyway, I was dumbfounded that Serena even made the dish in the first place.  Normally, Serena would have omitted the raisins or opted out of the recipe all together.  “Honey, this is delicious... based on the ingredients alone I am surprised you even made it in the first place.”

Serena laughed, “I know, right?” 

Consistent no more… After all these years I’ll have to use the word ‘surprising’… and I really like the sound of that.