We moved into our first place together after our Hawaii honeymoon, and it’s the same place we lived for eight years. Our first night here, we had no furniture except our bed, and we laid up all night like teenagers at a slumber party. We talked, giggled, and dreamed about the future together. We just couldn’t believe that we’d get to be roommates for the rest of our lives.
The next morning, we did something that real, established married couples do: we recorded our first answering machine message as husband and wife. Yes, Internet, answering machine. On our home phone. You’ve reached the Demos residence!
Can you even call a condo inhabited by twenty-somethings a residence with a straight face?
We couldn’t.
We sat on the edge of our bed, in our empty condo, with our feet dangling just above the edge of the wood floor, and scripted out our lines. How we would says things. Who would say them. When we would cut each other off. And how it would end. After multiple revisions and plenty of practice runs, we recorded our first official, grown-up answering machine message.
And stopped seconds into it. Because we were laughing hysterically. So, we tried again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
But every time we restarted and heard, “Please leave your message after the tone. BEEP!” we totally lost it.
After dozens of attempts, we finally got it, hung up the phone, and fell back into each other’s arms. Red-cheeked, teary-eyed, and exhausted from clutching our guts, we laid there for a minute and just stared at the white ceiling.
People always told us we’d look back on those early days of marriage with the fondest memories. That we’d give anything to go back. To the the times when we had nothing, but really had everything. And after all this time, we wouldn’t go back. The furniture is more comfortable now, the food is heartier, our love is deeper, and, in many ways, our life is better.
But, if we could go back, we’d go back just for a bit, just long enough to grab more memories like this one, and take them with us into the future.
Want more of The Pink Slip Files? You can read them all right here!
Want to catch up on The Pink Slip Files? You can read them all right here:
Intro: What Are the Pink Slip Files?
No. 1: Failing Pre-Marital Class & Otter DNA
No. 2: Sink or Swim
No. 3: Turning Off the Lights
No. 4: Leave a Message at the Tone
No. 5: Chocolates, Mystery Shows & Honeymooning
No. 6: Cutting Coupons & Wal-Mart Jeans
No. 7: Paper Chains of Memories
No. 8: Dancing on Bar Tops
No. 9: Man’s Best (Feline) Friend
No. 10: Confessions of a Waffle Fry
No. 11: What’s So Important About Shoelaces?
No. 12: Breaking Records… Like It’s 1924
No. 13: Why We’re Not as Classy as We Thought
No. 14: A Letter to My Only Starbucks Lover
No. 15: The Night We Killed Someone (Kind Of)
No. 16: Lord, It’s a Fire!
No. 17: 6 Words We Never Thought We’d Google
No. 18: How Jordan Convinced Amy… To Take Her Clothes Off. Every Time We Walk in the Door
