Rob and I are in serious need of some couple time.

See, we are used to spending a lot of time together. A LOT. We started dating in high school and went to the same college, so we have spent time together on pretty much a daily basis since I was 14. Well, except for that first summer when his family took an 8-week vacation out west and he wrote me ONE letter. (ONE! Fucker.) And since he is a year older than me, we spent both my senior year in high school and my senior year in college 3 hours apart and only got conjugal visits every other month or so. (I'm kidding about the conjugal part. Maybe.) That time apart was rewarding in a lot of ways, but mostly it just sucked.

Since we've been married, we've been fortunate to have similar work schedules and so we've grown accustomed to spending our evenings and weekends together. During our second year of marriage, the amount of time we spent together was a bit...well, extreme. I had switched jobs and we actually worked in the same office. As in, our desks were about 6 feet from each other. A lot of people told us that was really unhealthy, and to those people I would give a detailed explanation of our schedule - how we did, in fact, often spend every moment of the day together - how we woke up together, showered together, ate breakfast together, went to work together, ate lunch together, came home together, ate dinner together, went to bed together. Yeah, that freaked those people OUT. And I think for a lot of couples such a schedule would be really unhealthy - fatal, even. But oddly enough, we never got sick of each other. In fact, it was kinda nice.

Perhaps a year of that was all Rob could take, though, because our third year of marriage he switched jobs which pretty much fucked up the whole quality time thing we had going. He spends MUCH more time at work now. Which is fine - he loves his job and I love the several hours of Me Time I have each day before he gets home.

But this week Rob is super-busy at work and has come home every day even later than usual. So late that we've just skipped having dinner together, which is rare because dinner - the cooking together, the sitting at the table and not in front of the tv, the conversation that ensues - has become an essential staple of our marriage.

And this week has been a real drag for me. It's just been so slooow and joyless. Last evening as I was sitting on the deck watching Bridget chase grasshoppers, I realized why this week has sucked a big toe: I miss my husband. It sounds so silly that I hate to admit it, but damn if I don't miss the dude.

I draw a lot of strength from Rob. I guess that's probably an obvious thing to say about one's spouse. But I mean, the best part of our trip to Europe wasn't the markets in Notting Hill or the amazing French food or the boat ride down the Seine. It was just getting to spend the entire day with Rob. Every day. For like, over a week! And turns out, when I don't get enough time with him? Everything is just a little off-kilter.