Hang on for the ride...

I am sitting here at work, looking at the jumble of pictures and business communications and my eye keeps going back to one single item pinned to the wall of my cube. It's a picture taken in Las Vegas. Let me give you a little background...

After a very rough patch in our marriage, we both decided we needed a vacation. What better place than fabulous Las Vegas? Though we really didn't have the money to spend on such a trip (as these things tend to get a bit expensive), we knew that we had to get away. I knew that our marriage needed this life-support. So we went. We skipped out on Thanksgiving with our families and jumped on a plane and flew out to the city of lights. And we had a ball! Lost all the money that we took to gamble with, visited multiple casinos, stayed in a gorgeous room at the Bellagio, nearly divorced after a drunken brawl with one another, and rode the Manhattan Express.

That's where this really starts. The Manhattan Express roller coaster at the New York, New York casino. It could have been any roller coaster in any locale, actually, as long as there was a camera attached to capture the climactic moment of the ride. I look at this picture and see my husband gripping the side bars, leaning slightly forward, with a determined, excited expression on his face. His eyes are open and he's looking at what's ahead with no fear whatsover. Me? I have a death-grip on the handles, and though I've got a huge smile on my face, my eyes are closed. In many ways, this mirrors the way we approach things.

The good "Doctor" forges ahead unblinkingly. Always determined. He has a solid grasp of the reality of his life, good and bad, and sets his chin and plows right through it all. He never falters in his complete and absolute certainty that he is a strong person capapble of handling anything that might be thrown at him. Me, I enjoy life's challenges, but I tend to approach things with my eyes open and then shut them tight during the scary parts. But the one thing that we do the same is hold on tight and enjoy the ride.

I suppose that's what keeps us working...