You know how love goes in cycles?

Like, one day your significant other (boyfriend, girlfriend, spouse, life partner, fill in the blank) is the epitome of an asshat and you can’t stand to even be in the same hemisphere as them – which, by the way, is mostly impossible (unless you happen to live on the equator) – and because you cannot get enough space between YOU and HIM it makes everything that much worse because you just want to GET. AWAY.  Oh, and speaking of hemispheres – did you know that tornadoes rotate clockwise in the southern hemisphere and counterclockwise in the northern one? They’re exactly like toilets. Except…well, much more destructive.  How’s that for random knowledge on this glorious Tuesday.  Wait…wait…what if you DO happen live on the equator and a tornado starts in the northern hemisphere and then passes through the northern hemisphere into the southern one…what happens?  Is it kind of like, “if a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound?” ……….

Anyway, back to my point…because obviously, I have a knack for getting distracted VERY easily from my own runaway train of thought and if I go on any longer thinking about this hemisphere tornado thing, we’ll get nothing accomplished. So, then…while you’re all hot and bothered with your panties in a wedge because your husband forgot to spin around twice before he closed the lid to the toilet (I can’t seem to shake the toilet today…), a few seconds or minutes or weeks or days or months later, everything turns upside down (or clockwise) and you feel that ache in your chest that goes all the way to your gut…that feeling on the inside that tell you that you absolutely cannot live without them, whether they remember to spin in circles or not.  That feeling, almost like a voice, screams at you and says a single day they are not around would be worse than a million years in hell.  Without a toilet.

What end of the spectrum am I on today?

Ehmmmm…well, when I get text messages from Tim that say something exactly like, “What you did was perfect. They’ll love it.”  They being our mothers and what I did being a secret, since I’m pretty sure both moms stop over here now and again and today, of course, would be the day they came to read what I had to say and then Mother’s Day is ruined for all eternity.

Ok.  Maybe not that dramatic, but still.  That kind of scenario is the story of my life (which is a completely different story for another time because I am getting distracted again).

But when Tim does stuff like that text message – as small and insignificant as it may seem – it makes my heart go all aflutter.  It makes me smile.  It makes me feel loved.  There is not a single person on the planet who could say that and have it mean so much to me.  Not one person.

I thought I would share this with you, since I know I do not come across as a warm and fuzzy.  And, contrary to what you may believe, I actually DO have more than a crusty outer shell with the emotional capacity of a mollusk (though come to think of it, I did just see this thing about octopuses…or is it octopi?…anyway, they’re like scary smart and have beaks like birds…better to crush you with, my dear!…More random tidbits to fill the spaces in your brain).

It takes a lot for me to share my feelings with anyone – including Tim.  I am more of a locked diary than a pop-up book.

This is especially true in person.  99.9% of people I will meet or become friends with will never become a page on my diary.  They’ll never really know what is on the inside.

So, if we’re ever talking IN PERSON and I share some kind of feeling with you that isn’t funny or sarcastic on totally on the surface?

You better damn well be listening, is all I’m sayin.

And, to finish my point, regardless of how you happen to feel about someone in a given day…week…month…at the end of it all, you always come back to one blaring truth: You love them.

For better.

For worse.

Forever.