How Did I Live Without You

After almost 60 hours, I couldn't take it anymore. Sometime between our one night stay in downtown Charleston and our week on Edisto Island, I lost my cell phone charger. If I had to narrow it down to a specific, I'd guess the charger went missing sometime between when I packed my bag and when I left the hotel to pick up Riley at her hospital en route to SC-17 towards Savannah. During our vacation, I had to leave my cell phone turned off, only powering up to check voice mail once a day. Back at work, I followed the same practice but the juice could only last so long. Wednesday morning, it was all over. Its really got me thinking...what did we do before cell phones. I was handcuffed to communicating only through land lines. At the beach, I was denied 24-7 access to my fantasy teams or facebook notifications. What did we do before the internet? Next Thursday, the cable guy is coming to connect us to HD service. How did I ever watch TV using mere rabbit ears? Its not hard if you really stop and think how much we take for granted and if not so much take for granted, just completely rely on and also how far we've come. Riley and I have been officially married for 2 months, 8 days and 82 minutes...give or take a score. But the way Riley and I click, and also the way we calamity (yes, I used calamity as a verb) you'd think we've been married for much longer. It feels like longer than 2 months, 8 days and now 84 minutes and maybe that's because I really don't remember what my life was like before Riley. I can't imagine how I ever managed. Not just emotionally, spiritually or dietar-ally but totally. There is so much ahead of us, make no mistake, I have no reason to look back. That's not where this is coming from. What I am saying more so is that I am so appreciative and fortunate to be sitting on the back porch, at our new patio table, waiting on steaks to grill in my smoker, with Max asleep at my feet with my wonderful wife inside, probably flipping between Jeopardy and Entertainment tonight. Next week at this time, when those shows are broadcast in HD, perhaps she'll understand what I am getting at here.

Riley and her mate plus 8

Check the DVR on our new big TV...too big Riley says, but when upgrading to a new big flat-screen, might as well go big...you'll find several an episode of John and Kate plus 8. We recently got hooked on to the show thanks to the many mini-marathons that the TLC network has aired over the past couple months. The story is as simple as they make it look...a couple had twins, then tried for one more and had more...sixtuplets. I know that's not the right word, but I'm mathematically qualified that to say there is no confusion as to how many more kids they had. Riley and I might be a ways out from our first, nearer or farther depending on who you ask, but that show sure makes me think we could really have some fun sharing our house with 8 kids. That is of course, assuming that we get the tv series sponsorship and generous handouts to match. For now, Roo and I are sharing the beach house on Edisto Island with 8 other kids, some bigger than others. Our sun-splashed week has gone by fast and we will had back to Rock Hill tomorrow a little more tan than when left. No sun burn for me this time. It was Riley that spent a little more time on the beach whereas I spent a little more time in the sand...sand traps at the island 18. I fired a 97, best score of our trio and best honest and non-digital score I have posted in some time. I lost faith in the weatherman, who had bound us to the house for 2 days due to torrential tropical rains. Come to find out the low pressure system only postponed golf from Wednesday to Thursday; we watched Mother Nature give birth to tropical storm Cristobal, and we watched it pass right by. More of the usual through the week, ham rice, bocce ball, boogie boarding and board games. I took up kakuro. We missed karaoke. We fished the Atlantic, yesterday off the docks and today on a chartered boat. While I brought in the most fish, Riley had the biggest catch...a small shark. Jessica caught a boy, but threw him back. Just like last year, we have ran out of boiled peanuts and time on the beach all too quickly and soon we'll be headed back up 95 to 26 to 77. Our "kids" back in Rock Hill will be excited to see us. Most eager for our return though is probably Phil, who has been dog-sitting Kennedy, Max and Abby. The hardest part of his sitting was waking up at 7 each day to let them out. I don't expect Phil to be working towards kids anytime soon or offering to babysit for us when we have our 8. Jessica?!

But I Wanna Go Home

Boulder, Colorado is a lot like an REM video. Shiny, happy people bouncing all around. But in my mind, I’m going to Carolina. A three day trip sent me out west to the Front Range of the Rockies to train at one of my new hospitals. Meanwhile, back east, Riley is attending to a grand opening for a client of her own in Charleston. We will rendezvous briefly in Rock Hill for about 36 hours before headed to Edisto Island for another week-long vacation with Riley’s family. After years of monitoring the activities of Riley’s teenage cousins, now happily married, I am moving out of the “boys room” and into a room with Riley. We will share a room, as a married couple should, but I am certain the thought her parents being in the room below will float in the back of my mind all week. Nevertheless, with the granola-eating, dreadlock wearing, free-spirited liberalist capital of the world behind me, I am leaving on a jet plane for Charlotte, via Atlanta, and looking forward to the warm breezes of the Atlantic seashore. Can’t you feel the wind blow?