How Did I Get Here?

Yesterday as I was driving downtown to pick up my husband, I had this weird moment of realization. How the hell did I get here? From East Coast to West Coast – from one breath-taking state to another. Three years ago, if you had told me I was moving to California, I would have laughed in your face. Seriously - right in your face.

I very specifically remember one afternoon when I was in elementary school. I was at a friend’s house down the road, and she told me her parents were getting divorced. I remember saying to myself, “I am so lucky my family is normal.” I came from a family of three children and two parents – pretty “normal” if there ever was such a thing. And ten years later, I find myself with two divorced parents (who remained pretty decent friends), two sisters (the same two sisters), a toddler-sized half-sister, and two “step”-brothers (or something like that). How the hell did I get here?

Skip forward a bunch of years. Suddenly I’m being set up on a blind-date for the first time and never more nervous in my life. Something about that butterflies-in-your-stomach feeling that I’d never really felt – and I’ll never forget. I have one of the strangest stories of how I met my husband, and that would be all thanks to our eventual best man and maid of honor. If you’ve never heard the story, maybe I’ll tell you someday. A handful of months later and I have a gorgeous ring on my hand, and just a few more months later and I’m balling my eyes out as I pledge the new last name. I really did cry THAT much – and I think everyone else did too. Why are weddings so emotional? So I find myself in a room filled with family and friends from across the world – 8 states and another country, to be exact – and I’m again (very happily) questioning – how the hell did I get here?

Now I’m in California, reminiscing on how much has changed in two short years. I remember thinking, “What I would give for one full day off to spend with my husband – no school, no work.” For two years, I saw MAYBE a week’s worth of these types of days. Now we live a very scheduled life (that I absolutely adore) and we get these precious moments every week. Now I get to stay home, do homework, clean the house, fold laundry, and cook – and I love every second of it. How did that happen, and how the hell did I get here?

My only hope for now is that in three years, I’m not having babies in some Korean or Chinese military hospital saying (you guessed it) – “How the hell did I get here?” Fingers crossed for stateside – East Coast, to be more exact.

Just a bit of ridiculously stupid humor for my East Coast people.