Bigger or Better: Life outside of Texas

Last week, for a job interview, Mark and I embarked to Charlottesville (Virginia, not North Carolina), home of Jefferson's home--Monticello. Hence the title of this post. Except we never made it to Monticello, because we ran out of time, but, you know, we were still in his hometown. The reason we embarked instead of flew is because we had purchased our tickets separately, so were not sitting next to each other, and even had different flights after the layover in Charlotte (apparently the namesake was very popular in the South). These circumstances led to the Aggravating Situation of the whole trip. You see, Mark and I were in different boarding groups on the flight to Charlotte, and since he boarded after me AND had a shorter layover, I took his carry-on with mine so that I could stuff it above his seat before walking further down to mine, thus guaranteeing him a spot in the overhead bin. Unfortunately, when he boarded, he could not locate it anywhere, and sent me frantic tex

I am going to share a big Truth. Mark has been unemployed for two-and-a-half years now, despite efforts to the contrary. It has added stress to our two-and-a-half year marriage, but we have discovered that, by God, Humor Saves our Marriage. Mostly, the humor comes from him, because although Mark thought I was funny when we were dating (which my father said was a sure sign Mark was in love with me), he has since found most of my intentional efforts at comedy more worthy of eye-rolls than smiles or laughs. In fact, I think I give his eyes a lot of exercise Hey, I do what I can to encourage a healthy lifestyle. (credit: The Awkward Yeti) One of the best secrets to marriage survival? Laughing at annoyances. Mark laughs that I pronounce crayon  as "cran", and that sometimes it takes me a couple seconds to find the right words. I laugh that he sometimes eats meals deconstructed--like a bowl of dry cereal with a glass of milk, or eating a piece of bread, a spoonful of PB, a