Day 197

Call me cheesy--it matters not! Paul and I went to see "Letters to Juliet" a couple of weeks ago (he owed me a chick flick after taking me to see Kick A**). While it is a Hollywood creation and a fictional story, there is a whimsical aspect that makes women long to experience anything close. Claire and Sophie spend the better part of the movie trying to convince a very Pompous Charlie that true love is real and is worth searching and FIGHTING for. At one point he tells Claire (referring to her first love) "Imagine him going from working the fields to owning them...and Gran, you missed the messy bits." Her simple response is "Life is in the messy bits." In her hopeful eyes it is clear to everyone-except Charlie-that a wonderfully romantic life is possible amidst all the messy bits...they mustn't be mutually exclusive.

While clearly I am not an expert on marriage, I am an expert at being a hopeless romantic...and it's really exciting to me that all my dreams of a fairy tale romance were not idealistic or unrealistic...I am living a real life fairy tale written by the Lord especially for me...and yes, life is made up of the messy bits but so are our favorite Hollywood-made fairy tales that we love:

• Snow White dealt with a wicked witch and 7 male dwarfs.
  
• Cinderella has 2 wicked stepsisters and a crazy stepmother...and went for years with woodland creatures as her only friends.


• Toula spent 30 years living with her mom and dad and tirelessly working at a diner and then met a guy she wasn't supposed to love because he was not Greek (My Big Fat Greek Wedding).


• Francis had to deal with a divorce, a remodeling job from Hades and moving across the globe before she saw her fairy tale (Under the Tuscan Sun).

But all of these ladies GOT the fairy tale in the end--and the messy parts remained! My life plays just like a movie only much more interesting and exciting because it doesn't end in 2 hours. And as we muddle through messy bits, it is really clear to me that my prince or knight in shining armor or Mr. Right was perfectly cast for me. A great example of this earlier tonight: we each read Captivating and Wild at Heart respectively and have now switched them to read the other person's . I asked Paul to make any notes in blue ink since I made notes in red and black (compulsive? yes.) and wanted to be able to tell what he underlined vs what I underlined. He was laying on the couch reading and got up to find a pen, turned to me and said "Wasn't I supposed to make notes in a certain color?" Without looking away from the computer I said "yes" and then just stared at him and smiled. I know it's small, I know it really does not matter what color ink the man uses in the book....BUT, the fact that he entertains my quarks and loves me not just in spite of them but often because of them makes me realize that I'd rather have a life filled with messy bits WITH him rather than no messy bits without him!

--RMN