Best laid plans

My plan was a good one. A really good one. 

My wife was going to be out of town for the night with our son looking at colleges, I would have the night all to myself. As soon as I finished up my last meeting for the day, I would get a quick shower, call up a few friends, grab a bite to eat, watch some preseason football, kick back a few beers, and enjoy myself. 

If that plan didn’t work out, I would call up a former coworker, who I hadn’t seen in a while, and see what kind of trouble we could get ourselves into before my carriage turned into a pumpkin. I thought about it and considered it a solid plan B. 

I’ve been married a long time. I don’t get a lot of nights of bachelorhood anymore. Oh, I wasn’t looking to get into too much trouble. No police. No accidents. Nothing that would leave a mark. I love my wife, but I was still looking forward to letting loose.

I thought back to when I was young and how I spent my time before a wife and kids. After a long week, I would make the most of my precious time off, running a mile a minute until Sunday evening called and I had to get ready for another work week again.

Cold hard truth

Of course, reality was nothing like what I had envisioned in my head. My meeting went long. When I put the phone down and shut down my computer, I let out a big yawn. I was tired from staying up the night before. 

The night wth the guys? I laughed, I wanted no parts of that. Staying home by myself felt like a much better use of my time. Beer and wine? The club and sports? Nah, some soda and wings. Well, I did watch the game, but when I started feeling tired, I went upstairs to watch the game in bed. 

Of course, I was out in a matter of minutes. When I woke up in the middle of the night, lights and TV still on, I was confused until I remembered that I had fallen asleep instead of out with friends at a noisy, crazy bar.

A wild and crazy guy

The next day when my wife came home, I went up to my wife and gave her a long hug. I wouldn’t let her go. I held her so long she thought something was wrong. Nothing was the matter. I was just glad to hold her again and have her home.

Since she’s been back, I’ve been thinking more about my long lost days of bachelorhood. Oh, I miss getting together with friends, but it hit me that those days weren’t as good as I remember. In retrospect, most of those nights never lived up to their billing.

Does this make me less of a man? Do I need to hand in man-card or whatever they call it nowadays? Does my wife wear the pants in the family. I don’t know, maybe. I don’t really care.

I just know that I love my wife and I’d rather spend time with her than anyone else in the world.