I am ME, please respect that, OK?

First off I have to let everyone know that I really love and respect my Wife.  She is a very special woman and nobody can ever replace her.  I have a commitment to her unbeknownst to any woman before her, and I never plan to ever leave her side.

Secondly I would like for everyone to recognize that both my Wife and I are individual people.  We have our own likes and dislikes and because we are husband and wife does not mean they are all the same.  After all, even though we have been together for the last fifteen or sixteen years of our lives, there are still things that we both experienced on our own, before and after we met.  We are not together 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so we are different individuals.  What makes us special is that we respect each other, each other's space, each other's individual idiosynchrasies, and the need for our own time to ourselves, as well as the need for us to spend special time together doing the things we like to do, and we enjoy helping each other to accomplish our individual and mutual goals, no matter how hard some of these goals are to accomplish.

So the point I am trying to get to, for all of you, is that my Wife and I are very happy together, as much as we are happy apart, we are individuals as much as we are a couple, so PLEASE stop the queries about "Where is she/he?" when we are out alone.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with one of us being out shopping, having a drink, or doing whatever we like to do on our own.  In fact it makes us enjoy each other more when we are together.  Grow up!  This is the 21st century!  We are not out looking for someone else to be with, we are just out doing errands and taking a moment to relax and/or one of us has something we have to get done on our own which does not require both of us to work on at the same time, so we tell the other one to get out of our hair!

So the next time you see one of us out by ourselves does not mean we are out trying to pick someone up, heaven forbid!  It just means that we are individuals as much as we are a couple.  We would very much appreciate it if you would treat us the same when we are alone as when we are together, after all, we are the same, alone or as a couple, and we love our friends the same, whether we are alone or together.

Opinions

I don't remember where I heard this one, but it is good.

"Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one."

Props

WHAT YOU SEE IS NOT ALWAYS REAL.

Yep, if you believe everything you see you are a pushover. At 54 years of age I think I realize that everything I see is not what I think I see.

Case in point.

My Dad worked for the B&O/C&O Railroad.  In fact he spent his entire working life working for them, eventually retiring at 60 years of age with 30 years of service.  At one point in his career he took on a job on another section of the track between Columbus and Washington Court House in Ohio after working on the section between Washington Court House and Midland City.  He started out as a Trackman but had moved into Foreman when taking on the Columbus to Washington Court House section of track.

Until he found a place for us to move to near Columbus he had lived out of his station wagon during the week, coming home on weekends to be with his family. I had a toy gun that looked very real.  So when he slept in his station wagon at night he kept my toy gun with him so he could pull it out when thugs came around.  Lord have mercy if anyone ever called his bluff, but they never did as far as I know.  I am not sure if he ever had to pull the toy gun out, but if he would have needed to, it would have looked like the real thing.

So the moral of the story, it is better to be safe than sorry, but you never know if it was the real thing or not unless you call the bluff, and if you decide to call the bluff, is it worth it to find out the real truth?