My Comfort Zone

I'm all about comfort zones.  I need them.  They help me cope with my anxiety and adjust to the changes in life that I can't control.  In the last several years there has been a lot of change in my life.  Kids growing up, moving away, getting tattoos, yeah, you've read it all here. 

There are some things in life that are so predictable, they actually make life more comforting.  My husband, Dan, is one of those things.  Counting the time we dated before we got married, we have been together almost 35 years.  That is a long time.  And time enough to think you have your significant other figured out.  Especially when they are a predictable comfort zone, like Dan. 

Almost everyday since the day I met him he has worn 501 button front shrink-to-fit Levi's.  He "dresses up" in Dockers for special occasions like weddings, funerals and the like.  He has suffered through a couple of tuxes in his life but only because there was no way out of it.  For a long time his "uniform" was the afore mentioned Levi's and a white t-shirt.  Eventually he graduated to wearing t-shirts with sports logos on them and he has a small assortment of polo's...these are his "church" shirts. 

At any restaurant we go to I can tell you what he'll order...our favorite Mexican place: #3 with rice, any place with burgers: Cheese burger with fries, Italian: Lasagna.  You get the idea.  Anytime he changes from the norm is a day to mark your calendar.  It's like Haley's Comet...it only happens once every 50 years or so.

He will always be involved in softball or baseball in some capacity.  Always.

He is technology illiterate.  Oh wait, here's where the earth kind of tilts on it's axis a little.  In the last year or so this is what has happened with my predictable husband:

• got a Blackberry for his work phone and now sends work emails from his phone
• got a Droid for his personal phone and now sends softball emails from his phone 
• he also uses his Droid to recieve weather alerts and is constantly telling me about the weather in DC...we don't live in DC, but our daughter does, and I suppose this makes him feel closer to her, but I had no idea weather would do it.  Sometimes I feel like I'm married to Al Roker.
• has said on several occasions "there is an app for that".  Who is this man?
• between work and softball he recieves more phone calls, emails and texts than Beth and I put together.
• most days he spends at least an hour or so sitting at the computer paying bills, sending emails, making softball schedules, etc.  This from a man who a couple of years ago would only use the computer to play solitaire.  He's pretty good with the computer now, although he still doesn't know the difference between Word or Excel and couldn't use either if his life depended on it.  That is somehow comforting to me.

So, in my ever changing world of children growing up and moving away and getting tattoos, I have always had Dan as my constant, never changing, predictable comfort zone.  While these few changes could have the potential to disrupt my comfort zone, I take solace in the fact that there are still 501 Levi's and t-shirts in the closet.

Quote for the week:

When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
~Victor Frankl~