Twenty-five Years and Counting

WINNER! Sandy you have won the autographed copy of Divorced, Desperate and Deceived. Please shoot me you snail mail address at my email: christie (at) Christie (-) Craig. com
Contest, Contest, Contest! Contests all over the place! For the next three weeks, I’ll be holding contests all over the Internet and at Killer Fiction. I’ve written some funny posts for numerous guest blogs. And every blog will not only make you laugh, but I’m offering prizes to a lucky commenter at every link, so make sure you pop over and leave a comment. If you win my book and already have it, I’ll trade it for another one of my books, or I’ll send you a copy of one of my many writer friends’ books.

Today, I’m also going to be over at: http://www.romconinc.com/index.php/conversations/blog/4 Pop over and read my funny blog about some of the goofs hubby did while we were courting. You might even wonder why I married the man.

And then on Thursday, November 19^th, I’ll be over at Magical Musing: http://magicalmusings.com/ There you can read about how a conversation with a lady at the post office ended up in me giving her lessons on what you can learn from both my book, Divorced, Desperate and Deceived and what you can learn from the romance genre in general. All romance readers will love this one! And now for my post:

Twenty-five Years and Counting

Today is my wedding anniversary, guys. For twenty five years I’ve put up with, I mean . . . had the pleasure of living with Steve Craig. You’ve read about him, his flaws and his attributes. And that’s what a marriage is all about. You can’t just love a man for his attributes; you have to love his flaws, too. Okay, we don’t have to love their flaws, but we have to be able to laugh at them, to tolerate them, and to see them as part of the package.

Recently a dear friend sent me a link to an amazing video. I’m warning you up front. You’re gonna laugh and you’re gonna cry. But for me the video really brought home something I’ve always believed and I think believing it makes me a better romance writer. It’s not a secret, it’s a simple truth: The imperfections of a person are often what makes a person perfect.


Take my hubby for example. (And I don’t mean that literally, because I’m not giving him away.) He’s cheap. That’s right, the man is Scottish and has deep pockets and short arms. Ahh, but those short-arm, penny-wise ways of his allowed me to pursue my writing dreams. And while his thriftiness has led to several man/wife conversations, he is always more frugal when it comes to himself than when it comes to me. Case in point: I go to my hairdresser every six weeks, (she’s good and not cheap!) he goes every four. However his hairdresser is yours truly. That’s right, he gets moi to cut his hair. And let’s just say that I write better than I wield a pair of clippers. However, he insists it’s not his thriftiness that leads to his choice of hairdressers, but his desire to cop a feel of the lady clipping, and he doesn’t think I’d allow that with the gals at Super Cuts. He’s right.

He snores. Yup, a hero that snores. Ahh, but when he’s out of town, the midnight silence brings emptiness to my lonely heart. When he’s home, I wake up, hear the comforting roar that reminds of a bear trying to use his voice after hibernation, then with the poke of an elbow the noises fade and I sleep knowing I have the man I love beside me.

His other flaw is his loud bodily functions. Now, I don’t mean the occasional broccoli-inducing gas. (He doesn’t care too much for broccoli.) I’m not even talking about the rear-wind action. I’m talking about upper bodily functions. The man’s nostril excretion technique can take out an ear drum. Seriously, when we’re in a car, he’ll shot out a pre-second warning. “Sneeze on board!” I must immediately cover my ears. Once I was on the phone with a friend and he sneezed in the car and it hurt her ear drums! Now if that isn’t bad enough, when the man is unfortunate enough to catch a stomach virus, or to slip up and forget to ask for no ice in Mexico, well, let’s just say that the neighbors regularly stop by and inquire about his health. That’s what I tell him anyway. In truth, they’re really asking when the noise will stop. You see, when my hubby loses his lunch, it involves supernatural uses of his vocal cords. The guttural boom starts out low and builds to a crescendo of something that sounds like a half moan/half lion roar.

Now when I asked hubby about what quirks/flaws I have, he tells me, “You’re perfect.” Of course, that means he’s lying, but it also means I’ve trained him well.

I know this because loving someone for twenty-five years doesn’t mean they’re perfect, it means that their flaws have never outweighed their good qualities. In my hubby’s case, it means that he puts up with my single-mindedness when I’m under deadline, that he tolerates my messy bathroom countertop, that he understands my insecurities born from a my first marriage, that he accepts my never-iron-for-a-man policy, that he appreciates the woman I’ve become, even though there’s a little bit more of her than there was when he married me.

You may wonder how this man puts up with a wife who blogs about all his quirks. Well, when I was telling him about this blog, he said, “But you didn’t mention my sneezing or barfing.” So thank you, hon’ for helping to make this blog funnier. And thanks for a wonderful, humorous, twenty-five years! (Yes, he really does read all my blogs.)

Today, what I’d like to hear from you is, what quirks/flaws make your man perfect? Or what quirks/flaws are you willing to tolerate in Mr. Right now or when he shows up? What is Mr. Right going to have to tolerate in you?

Make sure you leave a comment. Remember, I’m giving away a signed copy of Divorced, Desperate and Deceived, so pop over to the other blogs and come back tomorrow morning to find out who won, and stop off every Tuesday for a list of where I’ll be guest blogging and hosting more contests.