Hello my friends,
Recently, one of you asked me to ask my wife to write a blog about me so there would be some perspective. Not only did she do this and do it well, but she also bought tears to my eyes in doing so. Yes, I am a man who occasionally cries. I believe it is as good for you as laughing, though in much smaller doses. Anway, without further ado, I give you Toni...
It's pretty interesting to be asked to "guest write" for my husband's blog. Apart from anything else, it'll force me to reveal to him that I read it. Pretty regularly. And hey, why not? He says lots of complimentary things about me (what girl doesn't love that) and he has a very similar sense of humour. He's asked me a few times to turn the searchlight of my probing journalist's mind onto his personality, to give you all an insider's view of Maso, and today I've decided to do it.
What prompted me to do it was a short piece in the weekend magazine that comes with the Saturday paper. In it, they feature a series of questions that they ask some sort of celebrity-famous-academic-whatever sort of person. I wish I had... I wish I hadn't... and other questions. Which I kind of answered for myself, until I came to the question If I wasn't me I'd like to be... and I realised if I wasn't me, Mark is the person I'd most like to be. But why?
He's just bloody nice.
Quite apart from the fact that I like looking at him, he's a genuinely lovely, sincere man all the way through. There's not a mean bone in his body, and he only gets miffed or upset by thoughtlessness .. and bad driving (he's a big road-rager which is why I prefer to drive). He sees the best part in everybody, and it often simply doesn't occur to him that anyone could be sneaky or mean.
He's amazingly talented.
While I love and appreciate music (and can read it due to childhood piano lessons) I can't really play anything, and there's no way I could make up a tune. While there are times he doesn't write music .. most weeks there's at least one or two new tunes he's doodling with. He may decry his own skills on the "axe" from time to time, but I think he plays beautifully. And he passes my ultimate test .. because I often wake up in the morning with one of his songs in my head. Which brings me to...
He's so funny.
Example: I woke up one morning recently with Tina Turner's "Private Dancer" in my head, and asked him what it means when your wakeup song is a song you haven't heard for years .. and it's one you don't like. He said it meant I had to sack the person programming the soundtrack to my life. (Well, it made me laugh.) There's not a single day goes past when he doesn't make me laugh heartily, often until I'm crying (the good sort).
He's so supportive.
Just after we got married, I lost my job. For three years, I was a freelancer with sporadic work. He's never made me feel I could be doing more for my career than I do (apart from bugging me to write for myself and not for other people). I now work a job where my shifts are right around the clock, sometimes on weekends. He gets one day off a month as part of his job .. and always tries to arrange it so it's on one of my weekdays off so we spend the time together. And it's not just me. He supports his friends when they're up or they're down, always rings all his family to keep in touch with everybody (every week!), and is Mr Fix-it around his office.
He has wonderful taste.
No, I'm not talking about me .. maybe just a little bit, then. But really .. he's the visually perceptive one in our relationship .. so all the interior design of our apartment is left in his capable hands. He knows (just by looking at things!) if they'll fit in different places and can rearrange a room in his head. He selects great music and movies for us, and often stretches me culturally with his choices.
He's generous.
With his time, with his friends, with his family, with his posessions .. he's a giver. He took care of his last girlfriend (before me) through some really tough times and they broke up pretty badly, but she's got a new man now and is happy and actually we are all really good friends. I like her a lot, always did. You do know Mark and I have known each other for 25 years but have only been together for the past four?
And then there's the silly things.
He's tall and can get things down from high shelves. He came with a beautiful cat who holds almost as much of my heart as he does. And a really great fridge .. and a big wide-screen TV .. and he introduced me to Playstation which I really don't mind now (especially Tekken).
I guess you can tell I love him a lot. He's NOT the wind beneath my wings (yeuchh!) but he is truly my other half. Losing him would be like losing a leg or an arm.
So there you go, Shovel, Dharma, Tex and the rest .. now I'm back to my lurking. But I will be reading your responses!
love Toni