A Shout Out To The Love of My Life

Hi All,

The past couple of weeks have been both gratifying and paralyzing. I finished all of my posts for 35 by 35, printed out all 122 whopping pages, and started to put it all together in narrative book form which is wonderful, and terrifying. Imagine a large Hippopotamus sitting on your chest and you will start to realize what I am feeling. I am very proud of sharing these amazing marathons with all of you, but the next step is the tough part, making it all make sense and flow like a story everyone and their mother wants to read. It is a good thing that I have a magnificent human being named Marion Spates as my partner in life, and ever present positive life force as my motivator and supporter. We are celebrating our eighth wedding anniversary tomorrow, so I figured today would be a great time to say out loud what I say about him to myself every day.

WARNING: If you have a low-threshold for lovey-dovey stuff, then you may not want to keep reading, because I am about to go all "Nicolas Sparks" on all of you.

When I first saw Marion on April 26^th, 2004 walking down the hallway of the offices of Digital Dimension wearing  baggy orange pants, a beanie, and Camper shoes I knew my life was about to change. Not only was this my first day of work at an actual 9-6ish job, finally breaking free of freelance work, I felt an instant connection to him. Cut to, later that day, and for the next few weeks, Marion constantly helped me with the company’s editing system, and helped me learn the lingo of Visual Effects, not a subject I was all that familiar with, but needed to be in order to keep my job.

I learned quickly that Marion was divorced and had a five year old daughter, named Hannah. He gushed about Hannah constantly, and would leave work early every other day in order to pick her up from Daycare because he had joint custody. He was the favorite at work, because he was funny, gregarious, and kind, but I felt like there was something much deeper underneath his overt enthusiasm and zest for life. Soon I found myself racing to work early so we could talk by ourselves in the kitchen before everyone else arrived, and I had him all to myself. Mind you, Marion was not my type at all. He had earrings, tattoos, a ridiculous haircut, plus he was ten years older than me, divorced, and a father, gulp, but his kindness trumped all of that, and soon we were on our first date, kissing underneath the stars at the Hollywood Bowl.

My experience with relationships was nearly non-existent, while he was like a Champion race horse, so I figured we balanced each other out? Not really, we had many bumps in the road that may have been avoided if I knew what I was doing, instead I am proud that every conflict has strengthened us, and renewed our commitment because of our mutual respect for one another. Also, I never in a million years thought I would be loved by being exactly who I am. I know our mom’s tell us that Prince Charming will love us with all of our faults and foibles, but I thought I would eventually have to change to get a guy’s attention, but Marion loves me in baggy pants, a bun, and no make-up; however, my hair down is HUGE bonus. He rubs my gnarled running feet every night, he may not like it, but he does it. He also believes in me. He has been rooting me on as a writer long before I was, and just as much in me as a runner and triathlete, and if any of you know how Marion cheers, he gets you going.

I can’t believe we have been together for over ten years, I am pretty sure we beat the House on that bet, but the years have flown by, and I feel like we are just getting going. I am thankful to be married to my best friend who is always up for an adventure, and is pretty darn good-looking. Plus, he is an incredible human being that I believe in, trust, and am thankful for every day. Do I think he should have a grown up hair-cut and not a Mohawk at nearly forty five? Yes, but I know who I married, and love every bit of him; tattoos, earrings, and all.

Happy Anniversary, Marion