I Love Whit!

So. I love guitar stuff. Guitars, pedals, rack gear, amps, tubes – you name it! I’m a bit of a gearhead. Not nearly as bad as some of my contemporaries, but I’m certainly an avid enthusiast.

So tonight I went to the home of some like-minded friends who I love dearly. Some of the few people who I can talk to about this stuff that actually give a crap.

Which got me thinking about Whit. She doesn’t care about guitar stuff. She doesn’t know much about it. But she listens and tries to learn about it. And she asks me questions about it. And she doesn’t shut me up while I go on and on about it. And she does her best to try to care. She keeps her ear out for ‘good tone.’ And she compliments me on my good (GREAT) tone. She knows that it’s something that I love and she shows me that what I love is important to her even if she doesn’t share that affinity.

And that, my dearest friends, is true love.

1) She takes being an aunt so seriously!

2) She’s really (REALLY) good at the big stuff. Like surprises. 

3) She does the right thing – even when it’s inconvenient!

4) I’m all riiiGHT? Don a sconna blura ’bout me! Bawn saw gawna da fiiGHT? Goansa dess LET ME BE!

5) She liked Caddyshack! (Not so lucky with Monty Python or Blazing Saddles)

There’s SO much more. But these things were on my heart and mind today.

Love you, Sweetie!

So Whit and I reached one of our most important milestones this morning. I promised not to talk about it. It’s not at all sexual or lascivious or ‘bad’ or anything like that. It’s just personal, that’s all. It’s very sweet and means the world to me. And I fell in love all over again! 

I love you, Whit!

PS – (Bah!)

I was tickled by something today that I haven’t thought about for a while. . .

When I was a kid – I used to collect Marvel comic book trading cards. This was, by far, my deepest plunge into geekdom. Yes – deeper than computer repair, my affinity for the sciences, and even marching band…Anyhow! All I wanted as a lad of 9 was a box of the cards. I would buy a pack from time to time, but I wanted the WHOLE set! A few of my buddies were given a box of these cards for various holidays and each one of them had the whole set with holograms AND doubles! Oh man. I wanted nothing more. Could have bought it myself for, like, 40 bucks. But at 9, that amount of cash was unimaginable to me. May as well have been a million bajillion…

Fast forward 14 years

I was cleaning my room and found a few of the old cards from my childhood. I was so excited. I was a little boy again if only for a few minutes! I remembered every card and all the stats on the back. And I got to thinking “Hey. I’ve got 40 bucks now. Let’s see if I can find a box!” And I did! They’re on eBay ALL the time. So I got a box. For, like, $20. SCHWEET!

(here’s the ‘how I know she loves me’ part)

So I told Whit. She couln’t have been thrilled over these stupid bits of cardboard, but she was excited for me. She had no connection to this pile of nerdery, but was supportive nonetheless. She helped me carefully open each individual pack, and organize, and catalog them. Put them in perfect order in a binder. It took hours! And she had to be up early! But she stayed up to help me relive a small part of my kiddiehood and it sure felt nice.

When we finished there were still a few cards missing. Others I had 5 or six of. I was so disappointed. All I wanted was the complete set!!! How could I have FIVE of some cards and ZERO of the others…sigh…

So I bought another box 🙂

And Whit, Lord bless her, helped me again. To look through yet another box of these stupid things to hopefully find the few that I was missing. We went through the WHOLE box. Only one card was missing. One of the holograms. I. Was. BUMMED! Like God didn’t want me to have the whole set…

But Whit kept me sane. And calmed me down.

And a while later, she gave me a gift – – the last hologram. She looked for and found it for me.

That – my beloved friends – is love.

I’m frequently re-reminded of the things that I love about my sweetie. And it’s fun! To fall in love all over again!

Last night was the celebration of her dad’s birthday. So my family and her family had pizza and game night! It was really fun. We laughed and carried on and all got along really well.

But my favorite thing is to see how excited Whitney got about the game. She was playing for every team because she just loved playing!

I hope that’s something that she never loses – the love of play. It’s so simple and basic, but most of us lose it. We have the love of relaxing or some kind of personal treat. But how many of us just…play? I think we should! And I hope Whit never ceases reminding me to keep all the joy of childhood!

My sweetie, Whit ;), has an amazingly child-like side. I don’t mean – and therefore didn’t write – childish. I meant child-like. It seems that she’s never lost that love for life and fun that kids have. Even when she’s had a rough day or week…even when she’s stressed out or has a lot on her plate… she’s never so out of touch with her inner kid that she doesn’t find time to wrestle with my dogs. Or laugh at the sublimely hilarious. Or get excited about Wins-the-race. She loves the simple things that most ‘adults’ miss out on. You should’ve seen her eyes light up when we watched the fireworks on the 4th. It just…I dunno…tickled me!

It’s just one of the ways that I wish I was more like Whit.

It’s so hard to think about how my life will be in fifty more years. But I’m faced with that prediction as a result of my grand-folks’ 50th anniversary last night. It was super nice. Reminds me of how wonderful my family is. Sincerely. And how truly happy I am to see Whit as a part of it. She’ll have to get used to everybody (seriously – everybody) mispronouncing her name. It’s the burden of an Aanestad (or Ånestad). Sweet name. Awesome family. Have to spell it when somebody asks you. Especially now since we’ll be pronouncing it correctly 😉

Anyhow. 

What will fifty more years bring to me ‘n’ Whit? How will we change? I’m only 24. I can’t imagine myself at 75+ and Whit at 70+. I’m sure I’ll still think I’m funny and she’ll be unleashing her pester balls upon the living world. But I hope we’re as sweet as my grand-folks. They love each other more than they did on their wedding day a half-century ago. And that’s what I hope for Whit and me. Wow. That gave me goosebumps.

So. Even though grandpa accidentally called her ‘prospect.’ And my family full of relentless teasers followed suit. She wants to stick around. Can’t blame her, really. We are awesome 😉 HAHAHAH!

Nevertheless. I love that Whitney essSpinelli! Can’t wait to make her an Aanestad for good. Pray for her – she’ll be stuck with me! 

Whit knows what’s up 🙂

HAHAHAHA!!!!!!

She cracks me up in the BEST way!

So. The surprise went very well. I took Whit to her first drive-in movie last night. And I prepared a dessert date, too!

It was great! Dates are nice – we should do that more often!