Shrimp Wars And Burgers

It was September of 1999, and Trent and I were in Las Vegas to get married. We were staying at the Paris Hotel, which had opened only eight days before we checked in. It was a lovely place, and since it was so new, we kept getting really good prices on dinners at their buffet. The food was delicious, so we ate there several times. On one of our first visits to this buffet, after we were seated I said to Trent, "Hey, I'm an adult now, so I can do whatever I want. I want to eat dessert first!" Trent chuckled and agreed, and I did indeed have dessert first. I could not resist the temptation of the chocolate and whipped cream and delicate pastry and fruit. Yum! Apparently my husband thought it was charming - he still mentions it from time to time, and sometimes teasingly asks if I want to have dessert first when we go out to eat.

What he doesn't mention very often, though, is The Shrimp Wars of '99. We were having our first dinner in the buffet, and Trent was excited to dive into a large serving of shrimp cocktail, which is one of his favorite foods. For some reason, he decided to put the sauce on the shrimp rather than on the side of his plate. As I was sitting at the table eating something (what it was, I cannot remember) I was vaguely aware of seeing something come flying through the air. THUD! A flying shrimp had just bounced off of my eyeglasses. Trent was horrified. "Oh, honey, I'm so sorry! I was peeling it and it shot right out of my fingers!" I had a good chuckle over it and reassured him that I was not mad. We went back to eating and THWACK! Another flying shrimp. This one bounced off my shoulder. Luckily I was wearing something dark and the sauce came right out, leaving no evidence. "What is this, the Shrimp Cocktail Wars?" I chuckled. "Nobody tells me nothing!" Trent switched to sauce on the side after that, and I have not been hit by any more flying shrimp. But I am always on the lookout for another Shrimp War.

Our body clocks seemed to get sort of whacked out while we were in Las Vegas. After all, you can find someplace to go or something to do at any time of the day or night. One night we realized that neither one of us was asleep during the wee hours of the morning, so we started talking. "I'm hungry," Trent said, "are you hungry too?" I had to admit that yes, I was pretty hungry. "Well, let's go down to the lobby and get a burger." So at three-thirty in the morning, we got dressed and went down to the cafe in the lobby for a burger. To this day, if we find that we are both unable to sleep, one of us will say, "Let's go down to the lobby and get a burger!" It makes us smile, and reminds us of our love for one another. And every so often, just to make sure that the other one is really listening, one of us says, "Hey, it's three-thirty...let's go to WalMart!"

I guess it is in any couple's favor if they can relax enough right at the beginning of their relationship and approach life with a sense of humor. Little things that happen can either make you crazy or just make you laugh. We have enough challenges that can make us crazy, so we try to laugh whenever possible. I hope that whatever your relationship status is, your life is full of heartfelt laughter. And I hope that you will not be dive-bombed during a Shrimp War!