Tell Me About It: Week 6

Today, we have two stories from Sabryna and Melissa. Even though Sabryna got married in Bali and goes on exotic vacations on the regular, her most romantic moment is so simple, honest and real.


Melissa's story definitely resonated with me as well. I have had romantic moments, but I've also had plenty of what she discusses.


Let me know what you think about each! 

A most romantic moment...

When Rebecca asked me to write about my most romantic moment, I had a little panic. I couldn’t pinpoint one. My husband, Anthony, and I are semi-awkward people. He’s not very suave and I’m not exactly graceful. We try, but generally end up in a fit of laughter. I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

To me, romance is that moment when you know without a doubt that he loves you with his whole heart. When you feel the butterflies and don’t always know what to say. Our most recent ‘most romantic moment’ happened this Christmas, involving an iPad, a father-in-law, and a piece of tape.

So you can know him a little better... Anthony is an amazing man, my best friend, and my soul mate. While we have a lot in common, he is very much the yin to my yang. He works in investment banking, while I’m an elementary art teacher. He’s very organized, from his socks, to his computer, to our ‘important documents’ drawer. Anthony takes excellent care of his things, and takes great pride in people commenting on how his 8 year old kayaks look brand new! He likes everything to be just so. I, in contrast, seem to thrive in the land of disorganized procrastination. It seems the best outfits, school work, and trips come out of it (maybe because Anthony plans them... :)

Back to our romantic moment. We travel a lot and had really been wanting an iPad to watch movies on. We’re also down to one functioning laptop at home, which can be a big battle! So we thought iPad was definitely the way to go. When Anthony’s dad asked what we wanted for Christmas it seemed like the obvious answer. Then the iPad came! We were prepared, had bought the cover, already had the movies downloaded, all ready for our new toy! Then as we’re taking it out of the box and putting the cover on I see an engraving on the back, and engraving that says Anthony. Not Anthony and Sabryna. I’m generally not an emotional person, but I was so upset! It wasn’t the fact that my name was absent, it’s that I had been absent from my father-in-laws thoughts when he got the gift. I ended up leaving for class in tears, truly surprised by how hurt I was.

When I came home the iPad was sitting on the kitchen table face down, so I could see the engraving. Except it wasn’t there anymore. Now there is a piece of torn paper with Anthony and Sabryna’s iPad scrawled in man-handwriting, taped over where I was left out. It was the most beautiful gift Anthony could have given me, he loves me more than having everything just so. 

Women have an amazing capacity for creating drama. We use this drama to bring about one climactic, tension-relieving, emotion-flooded moment and then delude ourselves into believing these feelings mean love. 

Ok, maybe that is just me—I am not sure I can bring down my entire gender on that one.

The point is I am not sure that I have had my most romantic moment yet. Oh, believe me, I have tried. A product of Disney movies and Mariah Carey songs, I was raised with beacoup notions of true love and happily ever after. I therefore began to manipulate and forge my own romantic instances when I started dating: I hinted at flowers and then acted surprised when they came; I staged dances in the rain to no music; I convinced my first love to fly out to meet me in Italy freshman year for a final tearful goodbye in Cinque Terre.

I am not saying I have not felt love, but I am saying that there have been very few romantic moments in my life that were not calculated carefully before hand (consciously or otherwise.) As I age, my self-deception has at least become much more apparent to me—even if I still struggle with the urge to manipulate my situations. 

So, the most romantic moment in my life has not happened yet. When it comes it may or may not involve the elements I used to dream about—flowing white skirt, handsome boy, warm summer evening, Glenn Miller's Moonlight Serenade...

I can promise you, however, that when this moment happens I will NOT have seen it coming.

I hope you enjoyed this week's Tell Me About It stories! Melissa's new website, Salt Dream, has quickly become my favorite. She offers up ideas for simpler living almost every day. There are lots of DIY projects and really creative approaches to life in general. I hope you'll go check it out. 

If you are new to the series, you can find other stories here:

Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5

If you're interested in sending me a story for the Tell Me About It series check out the details here!