The cleaner date!

Posted March 8th, 2010 by Nealia

I did manage to stay happy all day, which is hard sometimes on a Monday.  I wish I knew why I get down on Mondays, but if I knew why I get down would I know how to stay happy?  Most of today was just doing some laundry (with the dogs) and forgetting to change the loads.  Our new washing machine (you know, the one Drew had to teach me to use) has an alarm that is not very loud and I do not hear it. I suppose it is possible that I am just getting hard of hearing in my old age, but I think the alarm is not very loud.  I will have to buy a cooking timer and put it out by the machine so I know when the laundry is through washing.  It has been a rough day trying to do the laundry, sometimes I feel sooo abused!!!  NOT!! just kidding.  I did take a trip into town today and got to go to the bank with Mark!!  Now that is the exciting life a horse trainer has.

Speaking of what an exciting life horse trainers have, let me tell you about my one date with Mark.  Close to 14 years ago, about this time of year, Mark had taken a job in New York City and was going to be moving there in a week or so.  At this point I have to back up.  Mark had been a customer of mine for a couple of years and we knew each other, but not in a friend type way, only a customer type way.  We had been out to lunch with the rest of the barn and we had been at horse shows but always with the other customers.  I was always cracking jokes as I still do and when I would tell them usually Mark was the ONLY one to get them.  I used to wonder if Mark and I where the only ones who watched TV when we were kids.  Mark was the one person who really got my sense of humor.  Whenever the barn would go out to lunch, Mark would never be at my table as the ladies would surround me and he would always be sitting at a different table.  This is the way it went to two years.  Most of the weekends when his girls were out riding I could tell you by what coat he was wearing whether he was staying at the barn or going to run errands.  If he wore his hooded jeans jacket he would be staying in the barn for the day while the girls rode. When I saw the leather coat I knew he would be gone for the day running errands. That is as close as it got to me really getting to know Mark.  One weekend Mark told me he had taken a job in NYC and would be moving in a few months, the girls however would not be moving and would continue riding at my barn. On Sunday evenings some of the customers would stay for dinner and one Sunday Mark and the girls stayed and ate with us, as it would be one of the last time for a while that they all would be having dinner at our house. As it got later the girls were getting ready to drive home and Mark said he had to go to the dry cleaners and asked if I would like to ride along with him.  My life as a horse trainer is filled with daily adventures and hundreds of people wanting me to go and do wild things with them because I was a “Party Animal”!!!!!  NOT!!!!! and NOT AGAIN!!! That is so not how my life was!  So now that you know that I basically had no life, except watching TV at night , I jumped at the chance to do anything a little out of the ordinary.  I was waiting in Mark’s car as Mark said goodbye to the girls, and I said to myself  “You are so pathetic  that you are excited to go for a car ride to the cleaners”.  I wondered if I seem to have a lonely life to Mark.  “What the heck”, I said to myself, “I am going to go anyway, I do not care how it looks”.  After we picked up the laundry Mark asked if I minded swinging by his mom’s house so he could start her car, as she would be returning home from Florida in a day or so, and he wanted to make sure her car would start (as it had been very cold for several weeks). Wow it was my lucky day!!!  I actually was going to be able to talk to him a little longer, and I must say, I enjoyed the first part (in my mind) of our date.  We both were laughing and it was nice to be with someone who really got me!  By this time I realized I really did not have a life and I WAS pathetic, but you know what?  I did not care, I did not feel lonesome now, I felt great!!  We got to his mother’s house and Mark started the car and wanted it to run for a while so he offered me a drink.  All that was in the house was diet Dr. Pepper (ooh ick) and rum.  What the heck!  If you put enough rum in the diet Dr. Pepper, you can hardly taste the cola at all.  Mark and I spent maybe an hour or more talking about our lives, horses and our goals when we decided to get MARRIED, yes MARRIED!  I did tell him not to expect to see me naked anytime soon (sorry for the visual you now have) and that did not seem to phase him.  Mark took me home and I was floating on cloud nine, or maybe floating in a sea of rum, but that did not matter as someone as wonderful and handsome as Mark actually liked ME!  The next day I received a call from Mark and I held my breath waiting for him to tell me he had made a mistake, as there would be no way he really wanted to get married to me.  Just when I was sure that my bliss would come crashing down and reality would set in I heard Mark say “I have been thinking all day about last night and I really do want to marry you”.  OMG!! did I really hear him say that? I must be dreaming! BUT I WASN’T!   He did want to get married, the only hang up was he was moving to New York in a week or so.  To shorten this story we got married on April 27th, just 6 weeks after we had our “cleaner date” and we have been married soon to be 14 years. I will tell you this, these have been the happiest years of my life as I did marry my soul-mate and Mark says he found his soul-mate with me as well.  The number of fights we have had in that 14 years you can count on one hand and have some fingers left over, and he has been absolutely the best to and for my kids.  Not the end of story, the rest is for another time.

I  want to say “I’m Sorry” to Linda, as I did not mean to include her in my S—-d people rant a few posts back.  I like you and respect you and know you try to do the right things.

I wish everyday could be as nice as today was as far as the weather.

I am THANKFUL that about 14 years ago Mark did want to marry me.