An Ikea Serenade: 10 years
30 ROCK — “Hey, Baby, What’s Wrong?” Episodes 605/606 — Pictured: James Marsden as Criss — Photo by: Ali Goldstein/NBC
The serenade. It saved a rough 10-year-anniversary.
I’m not going to leave you with any illusions here. We post fun pictures. We laugh, but moving cross-country with our whole lives up in the air, it wasn’t easy on the ol’ marriage.
But thankfully we are now in our house. We are starting to settle. And we aren’t the only ones that just moved into town. IKEA just rolled in too.
Our 10th Anniversary arrived the week after we moved.
That first day that we got the kids all in school – IKEA…it beckoned, and we marched right on over. Thus the trouble began.
Our anniversary had been the day before. I’d played it cool. I was mature. I let the little things slide. But now, now the idea that he hadn’t gotten me a gift – it nagged.
Even when you are trying hard not to feel let down, not to compare, not to expect, it creeps round every corner and nags from crevices you didn’t know existed.
I couldn’t blame him. I hadn’t done much more (…and he has had an awesome surprise or two up his sleeve in the past, so he had some carry-over bonus points, right?), yet somehow I was weaker than the disappointment that kept rising up.
It was an ugly thing and I felt defenseless. I didn’t see this ending well…
But don’t. Don’t underestimate my man.
So there we were in that enormous store where NO ONE is overwhelmed. The sheer meatball-tinged-warehouse-air brings peace and harmony to every couple?
After the cell phone died, after we’d lost each other, after a communication blip about budgeting, on top of my inner-anniversary-turmoil… Somehow, mystery of all mystery (you hear my sarcasm, right?), in that place, I was the one overwhelmed in the corner of the warehouse.
Yep, that was me parking my rear on the concrete floor, in the corner, pulling down my sunglasses. I’d let it all catch up with me. I was melting.
That’s when my man opened his mouth. In his best Russian accent he sang,
“Baby, stop right there.
Let me clear the air.
Baby, look into these eyes.
Let me apologize.
I know what you’re thinking of.
You think, “Where is the love?”
But the love ain’t gone.
It’s here where it belongs.I know what you’re waiting for.
Well, you don’t need to wait no more.(chorus)
I can give you anything you want.
Give you anything you need.
I’ll make your dreams come true.
Give you anything you want.
Fulfill your fantasies.
I’ll make your dreams come true.You want a unicorn?
I’ll give it to you.
You want a puppy dog?
I’ll give it to you.
You want an ice cream cone?
I’ll give it to you.
You want a mortgage loan?
I’ll give it to you.
You want a satin pillow?
I’ll give it to you…..”
It’s a muppets song, okay. But do not, DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF THIS SONG, FOLKS.
He won my heart all over again!
Didn’t matter that he’d forgotten to get an anniversary gift. The stress of the week melted into laughter. This guy! This guy is never afraid to make a fool of himself. There he was, telling me that he’d like to buy me that chair I wanted….but I’d kinda been too pouty to hear him until he said it in his muppet voice.
Sometimes you just need the muppet voice to fully understand the situation, right?
Here’s to the man who is unafraid to live out loud, to speak light into the dark corners, and here is to the moments where we put aside the grumpiness, the sad things, and just let go and laugh!
Praise God for 10 years of defying the odds together!
a Rearranged Life 