Stories from the Road: My Love
It's been a while since I wrote about my wife Jen. We've been through a lot together these past almost five years. Our life together has not been dull. What's that old Chinese curse? "May you live in interesting times." Something like that. Well, we've gone through some rough stuff, but the joy of having someone in this world who truly loves you far outweighs the bad stuff that can happen to anyone in life.
Money has been an issue since we met. I've talked about my recent decision to file bankruptcy at length here. We've been kicking the can down the road in that regard since the beginning. I owned a semi when I met Jen. I decided I liked being with her a lot more than I liked tooling around the country, so I decided to sell the truck and take a local job. It took about nine months to be rid of it and I had to make the payments and insurance on it all that time. That put me about nine grand in the hole. I also owned a condo that I had tried to sell all that time and was never able to do it. Five fucking years on the market. I know the housing market has been bad, but that's ridiculous. That's going back to the bank through the bankruptcy. Through making payments when it was vacant to restoring the place after a destructive tenant, that put me another fifteen grand in the hole. When I filed for bankruptcy, I had 30k in unsecure debt and I also owed about that much on the condo.
You know what, though? While putting some stress on our relationship at times, the money problems didn't come close to destroying our relationship. I think that just goes to show how strong we are together. We are actually going to come out better after the bankruptcy. I'll get to keep my car. The house is in Jen's name and she did not file. We're alright.
This time of year is really hard on Jen. She lost a beloved cousin in August not long before she met me. We lost Swifty, the absolute best dog in the world, in early September of last year. And the most traumatic thing for my wife was that she had a miscarriage a few years back in late August. I have never seen a person so sad in my life. She still cries about it sometimes. I guess she always will.
I have also finished my college degree in the time since I have known Jen. It took me 2.5 years to do that, and if anything has stressed our marriage the most it was that. I have never worked harder in my life as during that time. I'd work 50-60 hours a week on the job and take three classes a semester at school. There were times when Jen felt really neglected during that period. In my mind, I was going to make our lives a lot better after I got the degree. That hasn't panned out so far, but I am proud of the degree. Jen is happy to have me back...
...that's the thing about Jen. She doesn't care about the money. She doesn't care about our social status. She doesn't care about high dollar gifts (although she has a weakness for her iPad). She doesn't car about fancy cars or vacation getaways. She cares about me and our relationship. The thing she wants to do most is spend time with me. She has the softest heart of any person I've ever met.
Yes, these past five years have been a challenge. But my life has been so enriched with Jen. We are in this together, no matter what might happen. That's all I've ever really wanted- someone to be on my side no matter what happened. I'll never be lonely again.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Your love for Jen shines through every word. How wonderful for you both!
And you're so right: you will never be lonely again. That is the best part.
How great you two found each other.
I hope all is well for you out there by the Pacific this evening.
I'm pretty good today...
I'm happy doing laundry, of all things! We bought a new washer last week, and I'm getting used to it. It's working well, but I feel as though I practically need a course in computer programming!
The washer and dryer in the new place both play music when their loads are done. Makes doing laundry kind of cheerful. 
I also like the fact that the melody turns itself off!