Ten Years and one IKEA armoire later

After David and I were married, a very dear friend of mine would repeatedly lament that “you just know” was not sufficient data in response to her question, “how do you know if he’s the one?”  Now, ten years in, I am reminded of one of the more specific moments not long into the relationship in which I first became aware David and I were at our best with each other.  He agreed to help me put together an IKEA armoire.  Had I understood the correlation between engaging in home renovation projects and the dissolution of relationships, I might not have risked it.

And yet, that would have been a shame. It was, perhaps, the first opportunity that reflected how extraordinarily well we complemented each other.  David began by reading the directions.  All of them.  I went straight to organizing the pieces.  All of them. Eventually, David hit a wall with the directions, as did I with the pieces.  At which point, he gravitated to organizing the pieces and I drifted over to reading the instructions.  There was some confusion.  There was some frustration. Then we started talking it out and shortly thereafter, it all came together.  Over the course of ten years, I believe we have now assembled and disassembled this one piece of furniture at least three times.

Recently, David and I decided to renovate the basement.  Our plan consisted of, in part, replacing four lights with recessed LEDs.  As it turns out, replacing the current lights with the retrofit recessed lighting kit is almost as easy as screwing in a light bulb.  Almost, as easy. True to form, to start, David read the directions.  All of them.  Likewise, to start, I started unscrewing the light fixture from the mounting bracket.  All of it.  He pointed to the directions.  I pointed to the mounting bracket.  There was some confusion. There was some frustration.  Then we started talking it out.  Shortly thereafter, the light clicked into place.  And, we were reminded that we do too.  Even after ten years. 

Although my dear friend is now happily married for many years, if she had reason to ask how you know someone is the one, I would tell her, “try assembling a piece of furniture from IKEA together."