I Love Whit!

I was tickled by something today that I haven’t thought about for a while. . .

When I was a kid – I used to collect Marvel comic book trading cards. This was, by far, my deepest plunge into geekdom. Yes – deeper than computer repair, my affinity for the sciences, and even marching band…Anyhow! All I wanted as a lad of 9 was a box of the cards. I would buy a pack from time to time, but I wanted the WHOLE set! A few of my buddies were given a box of these cards for various holidays and each one of them had the whole set with holograms AND doubles! Oh man. I wanted nothing more. Could have bought it myself for, like, 40 bucks. But at 9, that amount of cash was unimaginable to me. May as well have been a million bajillion…

Fast forward 14 years

I was cleaning my room and found a few of the old cards from my childhood. I was so excited. I was a little boy again if only for a few minutes! I remembered every card and all the stats on the back. And I got to thinking “Hey. I’ve got 40 bucks now. Let’s see if I can find a box!” And I did! They’re on eBay ALL the time. So I got a box. For, like, $20. SCHWEET!

(here’s the ‘how I know she loves me’ part)

So I told Whit. She couln’t have been thrilled over these stupid bits of cardboard, but she was excited for me. She had no connection to this pile of nerdery, but was supportive nonetheless. She helped me carefully open each individual pack, and organize, and catalog them. Put them in perfect order in a binder. It took hours! And she had to be up early! But she stayed up to help me relive a small part of my kiddiehood and it sure felt nice.

When we finished there were still a few cards missing. Others I had 5 or six of. I was so disappointed. All I wanted was the complete set!!! How could I have FIVE of some cards and ZERO of the others…sigh…

So I bought another box 🙂

And Whit, Lord bless her, helped me again. To look through yet another box of these stupid things to hopefully find the few that I was missing. We went through the WHOLE box. Only one card was missing. One of the holograms. I. Was. BUMMED! Like God didn’t want me to have the whole set…

But Whit kept me sane. And calmed me down.

And a while later, she gave me a gift – – the last hologram. She looked for and found it for me.

That – my beloved friends – is love.

Context:

Whit: I love you. You just say crazy things sometimes.

Cam: Facial expression that says: I say crazy things?!?!??!?!?!!?!?!

Whit: (*very matter-of-factly*): I don’t say crazy things.

I’m frequently re-reminded of the things that I love about my sweetie. And it’s fun! To fall in love all over again!

Last night was the celebration of her dad’s birthday. So my family and her family had pizza and game night! It was really fun. We laughed and carried on and all got along really well.

But my favorite thing is to see how excited Whitney got about the game. She was playing for every team because she just loved playing!

I hope that’s something that she never loses – the love of play. It’s so simple and basic, but most of us lose it. We have the love of relaxing or some kind of personal treat. But how many of us just…play? I think we should! And I hope Whit never ceases reminding me to keep all the joy of childhood!

Context:

Science show on TV discussing the possibility of water-ice on the Moon and how we might be able to take advantage of it.

Whit: I’m sure Moon water tastes all cheesy!

My sweetie, Whit ;), has an amazingly child-like side. I don’t mean – and therefore didn’t write – childish. I meant child-like. It seems that she’s never lost that love for life and fun that kids have. Even when she’s had a rough day or week…even when she’s stressed out or has a lot on her plate… she’s never so out of touch with her inner kid that she doesn’t find time to wrestle with my dogs. Or laugh at the sublimely hilarious. Or get excited about Wins-the-race. She loves the simple things that most ‘adults’ miss out on. You should’ve seen her eyes light up when we watched the fireworks on the 4th. It just…I dunno…tickled me!

It’s just one of the ways that I wish I was more like Whit.

Context:

Whitney: What’s that type of dwarf that’s like a regular person, only smaller?

Cameron: A primordial dwarf?

Whitney: Yeah! Anyhow. They’re dwarves that —

Billy: You mean. A midget?

Cameron: No no no. Well. Kinda. But ‘midgets’ are typically misproportioned compared to non-dwarves. Primordial dwarves have the proportions of non-dwarves. Like a minituare big person.

Whit: Yeah. It’s like the Cadillac of dwarves.

🙂