Why I love Margie

The guy at the art gallery where we ended up dropping a lot of money commented that Margie and I really seem to have a lot of fun together.  And … that’s true.

But the whole Big Art Purchase thing this week (which really came out of the blue as far as we both were concerned) really outlined for me something special about my relationship with Margie.

I would love to be a fly on the wall for most of the gallery’s transactions, but I suspect they most often fall into the following categories (when dealing with couples):

1. “I want that.” “You can’t have it.” “I am going to get it anyway, just to spite you.”
2. “I want that.” “Okay, well, if you get that, I get this, so there.” “Harrumph.  Fine, neither of us will get anything.”
3. “I want that.” “Okay, well, if you get that, I get this, so there.” “Harrumph.  Okay, than I get this, too.”  “Oh, yeah …?”
4. “I want that.” “Whatever you like dear.  Where are we going for lunch?”
5. “I want that.” “Fine, whatever you want, I’ll just stew over here and sulk and express my displeasure some other way.”

With Margie and I, it wasn’t so much a matter of having similar tastes (we both like a lot of the same things, but we also have our unique aesthetics that sometimes jar the other), as much as seeing the whole process as a mutual effort — subject to compassionate veto (and respectful understanding thereof) by either side, dealing with surprises (“Wait — you want what?“), balancing weaknesses (“She’s Impulsive! He’s Risk-Averse! Together They Fight Crime!”) and strengths (“That could go there” “What if we placed that over by that other thing?”), and recognizing that, especially with something like house decor (and significant dollars to be spent on it, making it more than just “decor”), this really needed to be a joint decision that we would both be happy about when all was said and done.

And it was. 

And, y’know, after all the good food and interesting sights and moments of passion and moments of quiet and all — that is what is going to remain as my most pleasant memory of this trip.  We worked well as a team.

Neat.