Playing for Time

… my husband.  Never was, never will be.  He had the advantage of growing up in southern California, which is to western Kansas what the Met is to the Grand Ol’ Opry.  No aspersions being cast, just different scenarios.  Out there they had no idea who their next-door neighbors were and that’s exactly the way everybody wanted it.

Kim’s been good for me in ways that would be difficult to delineate, but let me just say that no self-doubt or suck-up-ish-ness is encouraged in any way.  We are two blue dots in a vast sea of red.  No problem.  In some ways we’re hippy holdovers in redneck country.  No problem.  When all the world is looking for something new and exciting to do, we’d much rather be home together.  No problem whatsoever!

He recently left a job (for the preservation of his health) where he apparently didn’t please a single person except for most of the patrons he fed during the run of the stage shows.  And even some of those … it is, after all, the heartland, where you could put a plate of roadkill in front of most people and they’ll tell you it’s just fine, thanks.  That’s not what they say to their table mates and neighbors, of course, but what can you do — it’s the freaking heartland.  He’s held management positions most of his life and this is the first one in which he was not allowed to manage.  He’s a man brimming with ideas.  Ways to make things run more efficiently.  Ways to make the experience better for the ticket-holders.  Never mind, it’s the freaking “we’ve never done it that way before” heartland!  Easy to come off as the world’s biggest A-hole if you try to change anything here.

Despite the unfortunate fallout created by the clash of two diametrically-opposed worlds, however, he remains unrepentant and unscathed.  And that’s just the way we like it.  He gives me the courage every day to get up and be myself.  And I like to think I give him a reason every day to be the best A-hole he can possibly be.  It’s a formula that’s worked for us for over nine years.  As the cliche’ goes, if it ain’t broke …