Camelot

No, not Spamalot. Camelot!

Not a silly place

From Wikipedia:

Camelot is the most famous castle and court associated with the legendary King Arthur.

It's also strongly associated with JFK:

The charisma of Kennedy and his family led to the figurative designation of "Camelot" for his administration, credited by his wife...

That's how some have referred to my situation. It's certainly the face I present to the world, both here in the blog and in person. For the most part it's true. I really do have a great life. Sure, I've tried to screw it up a few times, but the foundation is too strong to let a moron like me crack it so easily.

I have no intention of letting you see all the way behind the curtain, but let's just say that over the last year, we've been tested more than any other time in our nearly two decades together. In fact, the test really began around the time I was preparing to leave for Iraq. The stress of that time, coupled with the crazy hours The Wife had to keep, plus the death of my Father, my return home, her losing her job... well, you get the idea.

It's easy to "work it out" when you can easily define the problem. Despite being a fairly intelligent couple (ok, she's much smarter than me, but dammit Jim, I'm a doctor, not a vice president!), we were not able to do so. For the first time, a space began to open between us. Over the last year, it widened to a chasm and threatened to consume us both. Let me put it this way - I was actually looking forward to The Wife moving to California without me. It's hard to type that even now. Read it again. That's crazy talk, right?

We seemed to turn a tiny corner when we went to Vegas several months ago. It was a little spark, but you have to keep blowing on the ember, and we didn't. I don't think we tried very hard. There were other sparks, too. I wrote about some of them on Facebook and here. In the midst of all this, The Wife officially moved out. I got a charge out of it when people asked how I was doing. "Good," I replied. "My wife just moved out."

It's true. The Wife is now a California resident and just "visits" us here in Washington. She's here this week in fact. This coincided nicely with the Entrepreneur of the Year awards, a black tie event we go to every year with her old firm, Ernst & Young. It was a little strange going this year because she doesn't work there anymore. Well, I'll let you in on a little secret since you've read this far - we are not above gloating. Damn right - she's a Vice President now, bitches!

I could really delve into some of the changes we've seen this week, but I won't. I'll leave you with this. We are better. In fact, we are getting better by leaps and bounds. My love for her has never been stronger. I will grow old with this woman if she's continue to put up with me.

Can you blame me?