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SO I MARRIED A TOUR GUIDE SERIES – Dean Jackson So I Married a Tour Guide….Home Again  “Home, Home Again, I like to be there when I can. When I

My parents like to move. By moving I don’t necessarily mean exercising, though they put me through the paces on a long and winding walk recently. They actually like to move, as in houses, as in East Coast to West Coast and back again. This makes Mother’s day difficult, as I frequently have to ask for the correct address for a flower delivery. I can’t pretend to understand their motives, and I often poke fun, but ultimately I believe that theirs is an (extreme) example of Wanderlust.

“How does she do that?” I ask myself as I put all of my (considerable) weight into holding the suitcase closed as I zip, buckle and tie it into submission. She has one roll aboard bag, neatly packed with several outfits (for any weather condition), matching shoes, toiletries, and room left over to bring back some
souvenirs. Meanwhile, I find myself manhandling a suitcase the size of a Volkswagen. How does she do it? She’s a tour guide, and I have a sneaking suspicion she went to Hogwarts.

My wife is at work. While for most people that means that, after rush hour, there will be a fond discussion of the day’s events over dinner. When my wife is at work, sometimes that means that she leaves on her commute Monday morning and returns the following Monday (or… Gulp…the following month). She is a tour director, and she loves her job. My problem is that I love her cooking.

It was a Friday evening, after a hard day of work. I was dwelling on some unresolved issues that I brought home from the office, and wasn’t in a particularly jovial mood. Still, it was Friday after all, our pizza and movie night. The red wine was poured and the medium pizza was plated. I was sitting with my favorite person by my side, with my favorite dog at my feet; the night was bound to get better.

My wife and I love to see movies together. It used to go like this: “This week you choose a movie, next week it will be my turn…” This really worked out wonderfully, in that we both got to see the movies we wanted, and we were also exposed to (and often surprisingly entertained by) the other’s choice. I like my super hero movies, she likes her historical dramas, but there was often a lot of cross over; she loves the Fast and Furious movies/I really liked Sense and Sensibility, and we both have always loved Indiana Jones (except The Temple of Doom).This also translates to television, with shows like the X Files, Agent Carter, House of Cards and Suits being destination TV.

My wife is a tour guide/tour director. I miss her. You see, her schedule sometimes has her working on my only days off, or on the road while I’m alone on the couch. She’s excellent at her job, and as a result, she is somewhat in demand during the summer and around the holidays. During those times of year I eat as well as I can without the qualified cook around (I make a mean mac and cheese), I watch car shows and super hero shows and documentaries on bands from the ‘60s and ‘70s. I can go for many hours at a time not saying a word (though I may mutter to myself occasionally).

Ok, so we’re going to a land far far away. There are questions to be answered, reservations to be made, finances to be sorted and tickets to be purchased. There will be lists to be written, things to be purchased, bags to be packed. Of course, my eyes are bugging out, I’m sweating and trembling-its vacation time and I’m out of my element.

It all started innocently enough, about a year ago, over pizza. My wife and I had been invited to go on vacation, to Walt Disney World and on a cruise, with two friends….another tour guide and his wife, a meeting planner.

I know, I know…It’s melodramatic; but things are just a bit more monochromatic anytime she goes away. But things can change. Life can turn a person around and set them on a very unexpected path, and help them to find their niche. It’s happened before, and it’s happening
again now.