Time Out

"This is the first CD I owned. My dad bought it for me when--wait, have I told you this before?"

--Kim, upon hearing "Blue Rondo a la Turk" or "Take Five" playing in a store or a commercial or the radio. She has told me this before; definitely more than ten times and almost certainly less than 100 times. She has told me this so many times that when I hear the first flighty notes of the piano on "Blue Rondo" I hear her telling me this story, like how the end of songs on your favorite album seem to call to your mind the first notes of the next song, your brain anticipating the next delights the album will bring you.

I didn't know this was something I'd enjoy so much about marriage as it grows longer: the familiar scripts, secret language, and oral traditions that slowly establish over time. But it's lovely.