Reunion

These past two weeks have been unusual for our household in that my partner and I have been more separated than together. I had to take a lengthy business trip. When I returned, my mother-in-law was there. My partner brings her to our house for a visit each summer. He arranged her visit to occur mostly while I was away. Her visit continued for two days after I returned.

I care for my mother-in-law, but she is not easy to be around. As a product of her upbringing, she has developed bigoted attitudes which are difficult to hear. She is recognizing that her vocal statements bother me a lot and stops herself when she sees me grimace when she makes unreasonable comments about her neighbors back home. And her eating habits are, well, challenging to observe. I won't go into more detail, but it's not pretty.

My partner drove his mother back home last Friday. He stayed the weekend and returned on Sunday afternoon. While I enjoyed some "me time," and having a weekend reprieve from the long list of "honey do" projects, I was missing my man.

Prior to his arrival back home, I changed the linens on our bed, dusted and cleaned a lot of the house, and even vacuumed. That is not something I ordinarily do in our division of household labor, but I know he likes a clean house and he cleaned it up before his mother's visit, so I returned the favor by doing it this time.

I also drained the water from our hot tub, thoroughly cleaned it, replaced the filters, and refilled it. I knew that my partner would be miserably sore from his long drive back home, and a relaxing soak in the hot tub would help.

I also got busy in the kitchen. My partner loves to eat whatever I cook, so Guido (my chef's assistant, pictured) and I got busy and made a loaf of Italian bread, a pasta salad with fresh ingredients from our "deck garden" (cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers), and then prepared a zucchini casserole. We have tons of zucchini ripening, so a casserole would use a lot of it. Too bad I can't eat it, but my partner loves it. It was all for him.

When I heard his car pull into the garage, I went out to greet him. I winced as he was obviously in a lot of pain from driving -- as I expected. I unloaded his luggage and got his clothes into the wash. He hadn't eaten lunch, so I fixed him a sandwich with our fresh bread, then sat with him at our kitchen table and caught up.

Then we relaxed in our hot tub, and soaked for a whole hour. It helped him immensely with his pain. It did wonders for my spirit. We had a long conversation about our relationship, and how much we think of one another, and how much we remain deeply in love.

We dried off, and went inside where my partner became amorous. He asked me to bring him a pair of boots and asked me to "get booted," then... (big evil grin)

Dinner was an easy fix, as a portion of the casserole was quickly heated with a zap in the microwave, and the pasta salad and bread side was all ready. I had a sandwich, as the veggies do not agree with me.

After dinner, we kept the TV and computer off, and cuddled in each other's arms. We didn't say much -- we didn't need to. Just being there, holding each other... lovingly, closely, fondly. I had blogged before about the importance of touch, and it's so true. Soon enough it was bedtime, ending with a long snuggly back scratch. Ahhhh... perfect end for our reunion day.

Life is short: show those you love that you love them.