{"id":1982,"date":"2016-02-25T17:07:22","date_gmt":"2016-02-25T22:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cindiferrini.com\/?p=1982"},"modified":"2016-02-25T17:07:22","modified_gmt":"2016-02-25T22:07:22","slug":"livin-the-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cindiferrini.com\/index.php\/2016\/02\/25\/livin-the-dream\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cLivin\u2019 the Dream\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Crumbs were sprinkled across the top of my uniform <\/strong>like one might try to sprinkle cinnamon and sugar evenly over a sugar cookie. It\u2019s not a uniform for outside employment, but my \u201cin house\u201d uniform that consists of a dull brownish\/gray but very warm and cozy long sweater and warm black legging pants. The uniform wasn\u2019t hung up neatly or folded perfectly in a drawer. No, I was wearing it. I was half reclining on the couch like someone was feeding me grapes. What a prima donna!<\/strong><\/p>\n

My hair was pulled back with a headband. It was clean. I had combed it earlier in the day when I woke up, but it hadn\u2019t been combed since. No make up. WHY? I was just going to be lying on the couch all day. My face was clean, but I was looking very \u201cnatural\u201d!<\/p>\n

I looked down at the crumbs on my sweater as Joe and I were sharing from a gigantic bag of potato chips and pictured the view from Joe\u2019s vantage point: Wife of nearly 37 years, no make up, hair pulled back with a headband, munching on potato chips, lying on the couch, feet propped up with pillows, potato chip crumbs across her chest and watching TV.<\/p>\n

I burst out laughing<\/strong> as I asked him, \u201cWould you have ever thought we\u2019d be sitting here like THIS 38 years ago when we were dating?! He burst out laughing and said \u201cJust livin\u2019 the dream!\u201d As we continued munching, we both just laughed and laughed at the thought that \u201cthis is livin\u2019 the dream.\u201d I was a mess. I wasn\u2019t lookin\u2019 pretty and actually, I was in a lot of pain.<\/p>\n

I few weeks earlier I’d injured myself in a very not so delicate ballerina jump from my hearth. That\u2019s a story for another day, but let\u2019s just say playing with grown kids, grand kids and soft indoor snowballs doesn\u2019t always end in the fun in which it started.<\/p>\n

The more we laughed and then talked; we knew indeed we were \u201clivin\u2019 the dream\u201d<\/strong>. Joe kept the zip-lock bag filled with ice as he rewrapped my ankles (yes, plural), heated up dinner to serve our son (with special needs) and ourselves, cleaned the dishes, got Joey ready for bed (and for work the next day), and then helped me hobble to bed. We\u2019re just a month into this and I know we might have a few weeks to go. It\u2019s lasting a lot longer than we\u2019d ever have thought.<\/p>\n

Our nights weren\u2019t anything like a night out on the town<\/strong>, nor is this much fun (I\u2019m in pain; he\u2019s doing all the work), but what could be better? We were there together. He was doing that \u201cfor better or worse\u201d thing we had talked about many years earlier. He didn\u2019t cut bait and look for a better looking wife along our years of my bad back injuries, illnesses, C-sections, ankle injuries, or other challenges. And I didn\u2019t abandon him when it was his turn to be served in a \u201cworse\u201d rather than better situation. We served each other through it all.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve come to understand that \u201clivin\u2019 the dream\u201d doesn\u2019t have to a be fancy nigh out on the town, walks on remote sandy beaches, or big vacations, but still <\/em>sharing the same couch in the same room with crumbs on our sweaters. I wouldn\u2019t trade it for all those fancy things. Right here, next to each other is truly \u201clivin\u2019 the dream\u201d. But believe me, when I can shake this ice, get the swelling down, walk normal again, go up and down the stairs more than once a day, I\u2019ll be up for a date with my guy, lunch with some friends, time with the kids and grandkids, and doing more than reclining on my comfy couch. Until then, I\u2019m just thankful we\u2019re \u201clivin\u2019 the dream\u201d together\u2026.still.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crumbs were sprinkled across the top of my uniform like one might try to sprinkle cinnamon and sugar evenly over a sugar cookie. It\u2019s not a uniform for outside employment, but my \u201cin house\u201d uniform that consists of a dull brownish\/gray but very warm and cozy long sweater and warm black legging pants. The uniform […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[54,111,113],"class_list":["post-1982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-romantic","tag-for-better-or-worse","tag-romantic","tag-serving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cindiferrini.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cindiferrini.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cindiferrini.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cindiferrini.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cindiferrini.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cindiferrini.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1982\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cindiferrini.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cindiferrini.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cindiferrini.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}