Marriage is Awesome - Owning a Cat Before Having a Kid

My favorite goof at Twin Peaks

I realized recently that Christian and I have been together for almost five years (three years of marriage this August).  Life's not perfect, I'll be the first to admit it. We're not exactly rolling in it, and we both have a ways to go professionally.  We have lots of things we want to accomplish.  We piss each other off, and I know we both regularly annoy one another (I would wager I annoy him at least once a day).  Still, we work.  I know this because every time we go on an adventure, before it starts, during, and when it's done, I feel warm and fuzzy and my face is covered in smiles.  Our relationship is an argument and supportive evidence for marriage.

I know that some people choose their spouses for prestige, money, or appearances.  Some choose their spouses as a result of a series of poor choices and end up being miserable because of it.  It's no wonder that so many people think marriage is a miserable state of affairs.  I can't imagine being with someone less funny, silly, or intelligent than Christian.  Everything is fun, everything an adventure. Everything is surmountable. Playing a game of gin rummy or scrabble and a glass of wine is enough to make an evening.  Talking for hours about movies, music, politics, or religion is still interesting. We're still discovering things about one another. That's when you know you've found someone who is worth your time. 

When you've found someone who makes you feel like Christian makes me feel - someone who makes you excited to see what will happen in your relationship in two, eight, or twenty years time - that's when marriage makes sense.  That and when you want to have kids.  Kids need stability and nothing says stability than marriage.  It's a commitment, or at least, that is how it should be.

Java - the cutest kitty EVAR

We have the commitment thing down, we just don't have kids - at least not right now. Lately Christian has been fixating on babies more than I do, and that's saying something because I have a serious baby bug.  He shows me pictures of babies and music videos with babies exclaiming how incredibly cute they are.  He points out half of all the toddlers and babies that we pass on the street (I point out the other half), smiling at them and making faces to get them to giggle.  It's all we can do to shower our cat with the excess "baby" love to stem the tide of baby bug feelings (It should be noted that we're equally concerned about our financial solvency at this point in our lives and that while children come up in conversation maybe every other day, we talk about art and music daily - I swear!).

Some people might think that having the intense need to procreate is weird, sad, or wrong.  They might say that it is crazy and possibly laughable considering the state of the world.  Those might be the same people to be in miserable marriages. They might be focused on how too many stupid people are breeding. I don't know.  I don't care.  All I know is that we have a super lucky and incredibly spoiled cat. When we're finally ready to have kids, they're going to be lucky too, because Christian and I are so committed to each other as we will be to our family.  It's nice to have such an awesome relationship.  I wake up everyday with a smile on my face.  I wholeheartedly recommend it. I also recommend cat ownership as a child substitute.  It really helps.