on how marriage is akin to space travel

The dating game is a funny business. First, there's pressure to go on dates in general. After a few dates, there's pressure to become "a couple." After an extended (or not-so-extended, depending on who you are) period of being "a couple," there's pressure to get engaged. If all these steps you've been pressured into were not steps you actually wanted to take, you probably then will not get married. However, if the logical sequence of events DOES lead you into the depths of matrimony, as it has with me, there is then pressure to have a child, or multiple childs, or--at the very least-- to have a blog. Seeing as how I haven't yet mastered the successful caretaking of a beta fish, I decided that perhaps a blog was a safe bet, and I promised Ricky I would take care of it all by myself.

The tagline for 2001: A Space Odyssey is "Let the Awe and Mystery of a Journey Unlike Any Other Begin," and this how I feel about marriage. Ok, so experiencing married life in real time isn't a mystery at all--in fact, Ricky and I are pretty much the same as we've always been, except I have men's shaving cream in my medicine cabinet and less closet space. It's more the thought of what marriage will be in the future: careers, school, children, family vacations, grandchildren, various successful endeavors, retirement, etc. If those things don't inspire "Awe and Mystery" at this stage of the game, I'm not sure what else there is!

So besides the obvious "Journey Unlike Any Other," how is eternal marriage like space travel? Well, for one, once you're out there, there's no "eject." No bailout. No abandon ship. And on a two-man ship, it's virtually impossible for you to make it back home without the other person. You take turns steering the ship and listen to each other's advice. You get to experience all sorts of cool new things at the same time. Even if you're working at opposite ends of the ship all day, you still come back to the same place to sleep. You know each other better than anyone else knows either of you, because it takes a long time to get where you're going and you're in close quarters 24/7. The ship is bound to have some technical issues, but you learn how to work those out. Even before going into space, you trained for a long, long time--knowing what the conditions would be like, what kind of person you needed to be to make it a successful journey, learning the controls, and even getting to know the person you'd be with for the entire trip. Because you trained so well, you really enjoy the trip! Even from the very beginning!

See? They're practically the same thing. No one is allowed to say anything about space food, though, or I'll track you down.

Of course, marriage/space travel is pretty smooth sailing until you hit, say, mononucleosis/an asteroid. That might set you back. And on THAT note, I'll tell you that I will be highlighting my epic newlywed adventures in a near-future, extremely lengthy blog post. You'll read it, because you already know it's a great story. I mean, really--who else do you know that had to come back from her Costa Rican honeymoon early because she got mono and strep throat, went on to have an allergic reaction, then missed her own open house? ...Exactly.