Chicken in the Dirt - Our Anniversary Getaway
Here's a funny story for you. Well, I didn't think it was funny until now.
Last weekend, Ben and I took an overdue anniversary trip (2 years!!) to Hocking Hills, an area of Ohio with beautiful scenery, hiking trails, and country. We got a really great cabin with a private pond complete with a fire pit, hot tub and grill. We were SO pumped to grill our food all weekend since our apartment doesn't allow for it.
Ben was awesome and prepped the food we were going to have all weekend. Zucchini, Chicken, Corn, Shrimp foil packs, steak...mmmmm.
He marinated all of the meat and created the foil packs and packed it all into a cooler for easy cooking. We were going to get to Hocking Hills around 6pm so we wanted to be able to throw the food on the grill and eat.
Traffic wasn't too bad (it's a 3 hour drive) until we hit Columbus. It backed us up for about a half an hour, and I was nervous for two reasons. First, Ben has a reputation for being hangry. If you don't recall his "cycle" post I did, you can find it here.
I'm not lying, ya'll! He has a problem. He's like a toddler that doesn't get a cookie before dinner. He NEEDS to eat or he becomes the meanest, grumpiest, most impatient 25 year old you will ever see.
Reason number 2 - he HATES traffic. Like, we could be having a perfectly nice conversation while driving and someone will be driving too slow in front of him. A string of curse words will exit his mouth and his road rage becomes full force. He'll explain to me why the person driving in front of us is stupid and how they should "get off the road A-hole". He'll then continue our conversation like none of that ever happened.
Moving on to the story, I knew the traffic would break up and we'd be fine. What I didn't know is what time we'd actually be able to eat.
When we got to the cabin, we were really excited. It was beautiful, quiet, and our dog could run around freely which always makes us happy.
We walked around the pond for a bit and got to know our surroundings. We talked about the hiking we would do in the morning and how awesome it was going to be to use the paddle boat, and drink coffee on the front porch.
Ben was smiling and excited when he suddenly turned to me, his face becoming very serious. "Should I fire up the grill?" He then turned and walked to go get the coals so fast I almost think he wanted to run. He must have forgotten how hungry he was for a second - the horror.
The smell of Italian chicken and zucchini filled that pine-filled air as I sat and stared at the pond, listening to country music and enjoying myself. Ben was hard at work, making sure his shrimp skewers lined up perfectly on the grill that he had to layer with aluminum foil since it was pretty rusty.
He turned to me and said, "I have to run inside to grab another beer." I called out, "can you also grab the bug spray?"
He nodded.
I waited for about 3 minutes before turning around and seeing that the lid was on the grill, and it seemed like an awful long time to leave food just sitting there. Part of me just wanted to get up and make sure everything looked okay but a few things ran through my mind.
1) Ben knows what he's doing.
2) I do not.
I continued to sit and hum along to one of my favorite songs, sipping on my booze filled sparkling water.
Ben came out of the cabin, carrying two beers and no bug spray. "Where is the bug spray? I can't find it." I told him where it was and he turned around to go back inside. He brought it out a few seconds later.
I watched him run over to the grill and lift the lid off. "Ugh...Tay. Don't ask me to run inside to get things when I'm cooking anymore, ok?"
I kind of laughed at this. Ummmmm OK???? I won't ask my husband to grab me something when he is already getting something in the same area. I smiled and continued drinking.
I guess the food was a little crispy. Ben tried to flip the shrimp and chicken but they were stuck to the aluminum foil he put down. Another oops. Me being me, and not that hungry, I shrugged it off and was just excited to be sitting outside getting fresh air. I could tell Ben was getting more agitated.
He made our plates, mine with chicken and his with shrimp.
I stood up, watching Benny start to chase a frog, when I glanced over at the table Ben had just put my chicken down on. The table was on a slant, and the plate started to slide.
"BEN BEN BEN!!"
We were too late. The charred chicken and zucchini slid off of the plate and onto the dirt below.
Without hesitation, Ben grabbed the dirt-covered chicken from off of the ground and ran inside. A few seconds later, he came back out and put the chicken in front of my face.
"Here, I washed it. You can eat it now."
I stared at him, dumbfounded. Was he high?
"I'm not eating that." I stated.
He stared at me like I had 3 heads, confused.
"Why?" He asked, annoyed.
"Ben...the chicken fell into a pile of dirt on the ground under a picnic table, not too far from where our dog just pooped. I'm not that hungry anyway."
"BUT I WASHED IT OFF!" Ben jiggled the piece of chicken, waving it around like a prized trophy. He acted like he had just done me a great act of service.
"I'll just have some snacks or something. Really, it's fine."
He threw the dirty meat onto a plate. We said grace silently and he bit into his blackened shrimp. He started to explain that he was more upset that he put so much time and effort into prepping and cooking a meal that I wasn't going to eat. I explained I would have happily ate it had it not been for the little dirt-drop, and that I was very thankful that he did all of the work for our trip. He was still annoyed, so I got up and took a walk.
I went to the other side of the pond, looking up into the trees. I prayed a little bit. I prayed that our whole weekend wouldn't be like this - annoyed, hangry, and resentful. We were supposed to be having a romantic anniversary getaway, and a stupid friggin piece of chicken ruined it!!!
I heard the music faintly from across the water and I looked back at my husband, silently eating his shrimp. I smiled, because I knew this was going to happen. In the back of my mind, I knew the weekend wasn't going to be perfect, because our marriage isn't perfect. No marriage is. Little things sometimes become big things. Big things sometimes become huge things. But that doesn't mean a relationship has to be ruined, or that time together has to end.
I made my way back to my hubby, sitting across from him at the picnic table. He apologized for being so quick to anger. In my head, I knew it was because he was hungry. Now that he had eaten, I know our conversations would be a little more friendly. Are you rolling your eyes yet?
We both agreed that I could have been a little more helpful and asked about the grill, or even have gotten the bug spray myself. He agreed that he was wrong in how he reacted and just wanted me to enjoy the meal he prepared. We shook it off pretty quick, laughing at something we had just remembered, and got the fire pit ready for a relaxing evening.
The rest of the weekend was perfect. We laughed a lot, hiked a lot, watched Benny swim a lot, laid in the sun a lot, and napped a lot. Wanna know what we didn't do a lot of? Fight.
Most times, fights and disagreements happen in a marriage, but only for a short while. Little things WILL become big things if they are not handled in a timely manner. Making time to talk and communicate is so important. Walking away to clear your thoughts before you say something you'll regret is also a great idea.
95% of our weekend was spent connecting, bonding, talking, and saying a whole lot of "I love you's." 5% of our weekend was frustration and disagreements. I think this is an accurate depiction of what marriage can be like. What do I remember most about the weekend? The funny story of the chicken in the dirt. But that was way less than half of what happened! We need to let the negatives go - the petty stuff that weighs us down. It isn't worth it.
Especially for someone like me who has limited time with my husband, I don't want to spend that limited time fighting over stupid things. I want to spend it connecting, bonding, talking, and saying a whole lot of "I love you's."
These 2 years have been a journey, but I would not trade it for the world.
Just a word of advice though, ladies, if you have a husband like mine. Make sure he is well fed!
-Tay
