The Key to a Good Marriage

Communication. Especially by digital and other electronic means...
My husband travels extensively, for business primarily, but also for pleasure. He may be in the wilds of Ohio one day and Malaysia the next. There was a time that I kept a very detailed list of his destinations and hotels where he could be reached in case of emergency. Then came the cell phone. That little genius of a device allows me to be in contact with him almost instantly if the need arises. Actually, he has two cell phones, one for domestic use and the other for over-seas. It has simplified my life since I really don't have to know exactly where he is at every given moment. He may be on an airplane, in a meeting or asleep in a different time-zone, but I can count on him to check his voicemail at the first chance he gets. Oddly, I really don't call him that often. I adopted a policy years ago that I wasn't going to be one of those wives who had to talk to hubby every five minutes about trivial things and unless there was a dire emergency, I wouldn't risk interrupting a meeting or something. (Minutes were more expensive in those days as well.)

Usually, my hubby calls me which usually works out pretty well. He may be running to catch a plane and just checking in, or sometimes he is in a hotel room someplace, feeling a little sick of being away from home and just wants to reconnect. Those are the conversations I look forward to most. He is hungry for news of the kids, things that will give him a smile and brighten up his day. I can tell him things that, if he were actually were home to hear, would make his eyes glaze over from boredom. We have some really good talks and I am as happy to hear his voice as he is to hear mine. Occasionally, I think that he forgets that while he is all alone in his room, I still have seven roomies, vying for my attention. He seems to get a little irritated when some of the daughters turn up having one of their endless fusses right next to the phone.

Next to the cell phone, I think that email is one of the greatest inventions ever. My husband takes his laptop everywhere he goes. If he can connect to a phone line, he can work from pretty much anywhere in the world. We communicate a great deal by email, especially when he is in a time-zone that is radically different than ours. It was actually his enjoyment of my long newsy emails containing anecdotes about the children, that prompted me to start this blog. Some of the things you read here actually began as emails to my dearly beloved and others as things I know would bore him to tears.

When he is home, I am competing for his attention with the kids, the TV, the phone, email and everything else. I guess that is why I really don't mind when he's gone. Then he is all mine...