My Funny Valentine

I thought it only fitting that in my Update-A-Day project,  I should highlight John on Valentine's day.

Would you believe out of the two of us, he is the romantic?  I'm actually not a fan of Valentine's day.  It feels forced and cheapened.   The giant tent outside the grocery store for your "One stop shopping Valentine needs!" really bothers me.  Ridiculously over priced roses.  Crappy chocolates in giant red boxes.  Tacky ugly stuffed animals.  Just because the date on the calendar tells you so.  Talk about a scam.  I would be insulted if John came home with any of the above.  And yet the giant tents that have set up camp make me wonder if I am in the minority in my way of thinking.  (I did however purchase season 2 of Downton Abbey and told John he got me that for Valentine's day.)
 
I don't need a particular day to know that John loves me.  It's in the little things he does every day.  For instance, he helps with laundry and the errands when he's in town.  And he doesn't need a special day to pick up some chocolate for me if he runs across something he thinks I will like.  Except for now we are both on diets so hopefully that will stop.  I gave him grief for supporting me in word, but not in deed. "But you like chocolate, and I thought of you and had to get it."

Anyway, he's gone this week. That seems par for the course.  Good thing I'm not all about Valentine's day or I might get my feelings hurt.  He's traveling as much as ever.  I barely bother to keep track. It changes day to day.  He just hit diamond status (the highest level) with Delta.  And he's the highest level with Southwest as well.  Yes, he travels that much.  And at least with Delta, he gets upgraded all the time and is actually annoyed if he has to sit back with the commoners in Coach.

There's even talk of him going back to Belgium sometime in the near future.  For like three weeks. I've got my fingers crossed he can put it off until June, then maybe I can join him for a week. They really like him in Belgium.  Last time he found a job application on his desk.  It's only a little tempting. 

A few years ago, we were looking to work abroad for a couple years.  Belgium in particular.  I wanted it so bad it hurt.  We knew a guy who did a two year stint, kept his house in the states, made a bunch of money (tax free, he was working for Uncle Sam) paid off debts and traveled all over Europe.  And what an awesome experience for our whole family!

But alas, it was not meant to be.  So we accepted that we are where we are supposed to be and continued on with our lives.  And Nick went to high school and is having an awesome year, and Christopher is going to a special kindergarten and is doing AMAZING, and I am sure any experiences we would have abroad would be awesome, but I think these are the experiences we are meant to have today.  Besides the job offer isn't for a 2 year stint.  It would be permanent.

Even in this economy, job security isn't something I worry about.  I am grateful for that. They seem to value him at his job.  John is a hard worker.  He's a really smart guy, but not arrogant, and people just like him.  And he actually gets job offers all the time. Nothing we ever considered even thinking about.  Most of them require moves to places like Washington DC or San Jose.

And I mentioned he's on a diet too?  He is doing some kind of diet with a couple of friends with an iphone app.  So it's competitive and they can see how each other is doing and keep each other honest. He lost 10 pounds in the first two weeks.  Life is so unfair. I think I was averaging 3 lbs a week with CATZ and I was killing myself to do so.  John cuts his calories, and tries to get some exercise in "even if it's just walking around the airport" And he's already lost the equivalent of my unrealistic goal for an entire month's weight loss.

So that's it.  He works.  He travels.  He's losing weight.  And he gets in a little English Premier League Soccer in between loads of laundry.