No Zombies for Me...It's Time for Dinner

I have been so sick these past couple of weeks that, had a zombie apocalypse occurred, you probably would have found me curled up in a corner, in a fetal position, waiting it out.

But here we are, por fin, and I'm finally coming out on the other side. Luckily, no zombies for me, because I am waiting for my sweet husband to come home and we can have dinner.

It's one of my favorite times of the day...that sweet spot just before he gets home from work.

As a teacher, I get home before he does. It gives me the quiet time I need to unwind, take a power nap, start dinner and sometimes, even go to the gym or go for a walk.

Regardless of my after school activity, every day, I feel the genuine excitement of waiting for him to get home, to see his smile, share a kiss, and begin our night, which almost always begins with dinner and a chat.

Our nights are nothing special in the sense that, during the week, we rarely go out, and often, he snoozes on the couch after dinner. But it is precious time, nonetheless, because over dinner, we talk. There is no television, no phone, no distraction. We chat about what happened that day at work, what we heard on the news or on NPR, or what we are planning to do over the upcoming weekend. We eat, we banter, we connect.

For some, dinner spent in front of the television or eating on the go is normalcy and often a necessity. But for us, dinner together at the table is an unofficial ritual that reconnects us after a day spent apart, doing our own thing.

As we approach our anniversary, I can't help but reflect on how blessed we are, to be in a marriage where we genuinely enjoy spending time together, that we share common interests and maintain enough differences to make conversation playful, sometimes intense, but always interesting.

And when either of us, or even both of us are in a quiet mood, neither seems to take offense at the quiet space between us, because there is comfort in sharing space, confident that anything other than quiet time is discussed and not shrouded in uncertainty or anxiety about what the other is thinking or why the other is so quiet.

Dinner time, like our Sunday coffee dates is precious. It's something I look forward to every day, like the excitement that builds as I wait for his car to pull into the driveway...it sets this perpetual newlywed's heart aflutter.

Un besote...