Well, I’ve been married for a whopping eleven-ish days—and I love it! Specifically, I love my wife.
Naturally, a good chunk of those days were spent living the sweet life aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise. We went down to Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic and to Royal Caribbean’s private island, Coco Cay. It was my first cruise and I loved spending all of that quiet, relaxing, unstructured time with Dr. Wife.
Now, it’s back to Reality for both of us. Dr. Wife is finishing up her residency in North Carolina and I’m still at my school in South Carolina, so we’re living apart during the weeks until she wraps up residency next summer. That means we’re delaying the usual first-year-of-marriage stuff, like adjusting to living together full-time.
We’re both ready for it. I crave the day that I am around Dr. Wife enough to want short amounts of time away from her (like holing up in my office and playing Civilization VII for a couple of hours—not like running off on some boys’ weekend or the like). We’re both ready to come home to each other every day, not just on the weekends. We’re ready to get into the grooves and rhythms of everyday life together.
It’s coming soon! Dr. Wife has her home in North Carolina on the market; we are praying for offers. She’ll stay in a long-term AirBnB once her home sells, which will cost a good deal less each month than the current mortgage payments and utilities on her home. I’m listing my house soon, too, and am similarly praying for a quick sale. I’ll reside in our new home once mine sells (or once she finishes residency, whichever happens first). Owning three homes (gulp!) between us is not as glamorous as it sounds.
In the meantime, I’m gathering up our collective belongings and slowly moving them to our new house. Monday night I started to load up piles and piles of LEGO sets in a big storage bin, with the hope of keeping them relatively intact (of course, if they all crumble into a massive mix of bricks in transit, I’ll just have the fun of rebuilding them all). I’m listing random junk on Facebook Marketplace to unload more.
I’m also keeping Dr. Wife’s dog, Nugget, during the duration. Nugget is amazing—she is a three-legged mutt of some kind, and she is an absolute doll. But she doesn’t like my neighbor, Across the Field Jerry, who comes by to take Murphy out a couple of times a day. Fortunately, Nugs is pretty good at holding her bladder; more importantly, she makes for a very sweet cuddle buddy. Murphy sleeps on the floor at the foot of the bed; Nugget sleeps on the bed with me, curled up as closely as possible. Her fur is like satin!
So, those are just some quick looks into these early days of our marriage. Dr. Wife possesses a sweet, golden heart, and we are each other’s best friends and biggest supporters. We’ve endured quite a bit already, and this exciting-but-busy next chapter will have its ups and downs. We’re confident that we can tackle them together—along with Christ.
The Portly Politico 
>>…not like running off on some boys’ weekend or the like
For the past 5 years I go to a boardgame convention every Jan/Feb in Charlotte. I call it my “birthday gift to me”. It has been really fun the last couple of years as J&V have started going with me.
I don’t go to “get away” from the wife, as a matter of fact she went with us last year to watch the grandbaby while his parents are gaming.
#tantrumcon
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A boardgame convention? Tell me more. Is there a website for it?
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Todd is the king of boardgames. Here is a link to the convention he mentioned: https://tantrumcon.com/
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Cheers. I’ve got the tab open.
Britain is the land of board games. I reckon virtually every household in the country has at least one board game in the closet. We have loads including 3 different versions of Risk. The Walking Dead version, which Tina won’t let us play until Christmas, sounds really cool, mainly because it appears that when you wipe out a human settlement, you’ve then got to wipe out the dead when they rise! Awesome! 😄
I was going to write a short piece before Christmas on favourite board games but I’m happy to give the floor to Todd. What do you reckon, Todd?
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You can definitely contribute a short piece about your favo[u]rite board games. I’d also be thrilled if Todd contributed something, too.
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re: Conventions
I hear the UK Games Expo in Birmingham is a really nice convention and getting bigger every year.
Some of my favorite games:
Ra by Reiner Knizia is one of the few “10s” in my collection. Great game. Great fun. Its an auction game with an Egyptian theme.
Twilight Struggle is another “10” for me, even though I haven’t played it in over 10 years. It is an area-control game (a map of the world) set during the Cold War. It is the US vs USSR. You use event cards to raise your influence (and diminish your opponent’s) in regions of the world. Why 10 years since I’ve played it? It is a little “meaty”. It is a 2 player game and you need a like-minded history nerd willing to spend 2-3 hours. Harder than you might think.
Tokaido is a very calm, zen-like game. No confrontation with other players. You’re just a traveler, walking the “Tokaido Road” in Japan, meeting fellow travelers, enjoying a soak in the hot springs, and painting landscapes. Really a fun game with newer gamers.
With over 500 board games, it’s hard to spotlight all the good ones. There’s always the “hot, new games” catching my eye.
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I’ll have a look. 👍
My favourite board game is and will always be chess. It’s never the same game twice and I love that.
My favourite table game is Rummikub. Once again, a game that is unlimited and requires more skill than chance.
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These games sound amazing, Todd. I’ve seen Twilight Struggle on eBay before. It looks cool. We’ll have to sit down and play it sometime.
Tokaido sounds like my kind of game. Very fun.
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Twilight Struggle is great and I think you’d love it. We need to plan about 3 hours one day. It’s really easy to learn. The gameplay is simple but the back and forth countering is really tactical. It is very popular and currently has 8 printings with the 20th Anniversary edition due to release in ’26 (I’ve already preordered it).
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Yes! I’d be up for that. Just a matter of finding the “when” to do it. The game sounds awesome.
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I just wrote a lengthy piece (for me) about games and it appears to have disappeared. I need to get some work done. I’ll try again later.
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Dang, I’m sorry it disappeared! But that sounds awesome.
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Are you an all round gamer, Todd, or is it just board games?
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I’m pretty much an analog, board gamer. My PC is over 10 years old so no video games for it. We (badly) need to upgrade.
As an FYI, there is a board game site, https://en.boardgamearena.com/ that has a lot of digitized board game. All web-based, no downloads needed. Some good ones for free and a ton more for paying customers. Creating an account allows you to host and play with friends. The games on BGA are posted there with the game publisher’s approvals.
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Niiiiiice! Yes, I suppose “get[ting] away” from her is probably the wrong way to put it. Basically, I want us to be around each another enough that we can enjoy the time we have apart. Right now, it’s just slogging through the week to get back to each other.
That convention sounds awesome, dude.
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I don’t have the issue of ‘time away’ for various reasons, one of them being that Tina is my best friend and I love doing everything with her.
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Amen! Dr. Wife is my best friend, too. I suppose what I meant is that, I am looking forward to the day when Dr. Wife and I are together all the time, so that when we have time apart, it’s more endurable. Right now, we’re just apart almost all the time. It definitely makes us appreciate the time we have together.
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Indeed. 👍
By the way, I hear we’re going to see a new name above the line. Tom here, you on FSB. I’m glad you’re networking.
I miss Audre here. Next time I email her, I’ll see if she’ll return.
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I would love for Audre to contribute again. In the build-up to Halloween, she was sending me daily e-mails with Facebook posts of creative Halloween decorations.
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