We don’t need no preacher man

Fact 5: My parents got married on their fourth date.

Yes, fourth as in date number 4. It was also the 4th time they had physically met in person. Back in 1972, my dad was stationed at an Air Force base in England, not overly far from where my mother lived. (I can’t remember which base, and I’m too lazy to go ask.) Mom and dad had been penpals, then on his weekend leave each month, they would meet and go out on a date. So their fourth date was also 4 months into their relationship. They were married in a civil registrar’s office on May 3, 1972. Mom was 19 at the time, and my dad had just turned 29. They lived together in England for a year while my dad finished out his service. In 1973, they came to the States and moved to the country out in East Texas. One year later they welcomed me into the world. 😉

When my dad passed away, they were 1 month shy of their 30th wedding anniversary. And not once in that nearly 30 years did they ever seem like they were going to get a divorce.

A house is not a home

Oops, I missed yesterday. But I have a good excuse! We were painting the ceiling in my room, and doing more cleaning, and the power to my PC was shut off accidentally. After that, it wouldn’t turn back on. Everything else did, except the PC. We left fixing it until last, and the entire desk got cleaned out, every piece of computer equipment came out of the closet (oh yeah – my desk is currently inside a closet) and we untangled wires and got rid of unnecessary things. I apparently had 4 or 5 power supplies plugged in that weren’t hooked up to anything. I’m not exactly sure how that happened, but at least now there are less cords in here. While the tower was out of the closet, it got a good cleaning, including a light vacuuming to remove any dust inside. Once we hooked everything back up, thank god it worked. But at that point it was late and I was exhausted so I went to bed instead of writing anything. But, I’ll stop rambling now and get on with the facts.

Fact 3: I live with my mother.

Voluntarily, even. I have the financial ability to live on my own if I chose to. It just makes more economical sense for me to live here. The house is paid off, so there is no house bill/rent to pay. I pay for the cable internet, as well as maintain it and our network — something she doesn’t have the PC knowledge to do, so she benefits from it. She pays for the cable TV – so technically we’re splitting that bill. We split just about everything else as well: cellphones, electric, water, etc. I don’t help pay the regular phone bill, but I also don’t use it so no calls incurred on it would be mine. While I earn enough money that I could pay for all my own bills in my own apartment: having someone to split the bills with allows me to put a little extra money aside for vacations and other travel, which I love to do.

Plus, my dad died 4 years ago. My mom is British, and her entire family lives in England; so the only people she has in the states is me and my little brother. She, by her own admission, is difficult to be friends with. That means she doesn’t have any close friends, or any one that she hangs out with, except for me. Even if I move out, she would be bugging me to come over all the time, or to go out shopping, etc, so it just makes more sense for me to stay here, especially when we can split the bills. If things change in my life to a point where I want to move out, I will. But for now, why mess with something that works?