The State of the Reaper Address

With one year of marriage under my belt, I think I have this "husband" role pretty much mastered.  It's just like playing the "boyfriend" role except more is at stake.  I think the most common negative issue dealing with new marriages is the expectations afterwards.  I've seen too many people (especially females) expect that "magical" rings are being exchanged in which everything completely changes after the groom kisses the bride.  In most cases, there is no magical change. 

I am against the idea that people shouldn't "shack up" prior to marriage.  A lot of conservatives get on the soap box or preach saying it is wrong (as in "living in sin").  I am not saying everybody should shack up before marriage, but it sure as hell didn't hurt me.  Sometimes you truly don't know someone until you have lived with them.  There have been plenty of friendships that were ruined after the two friends decided to become roommates, relationships aren't much different. 

I knew my Crazy Wife for a good while before we even started dating.  This gave her a chance to get a glimpse at every annoying and irritating aspect about my lifestyle and my less-than-favorable habits.  This ensured that there would be no "surprises" later in the relationship.  Depending on the conflicts of the relationship, you should spend more time understanding your differences with your significant other rather than try to correct them.  She completely understands that I LOVE my video games.  I completely understand that she LOVES her Cougartown TV show.

Not everything stayed completely the same though.  I noticed that both families (hers and mine) treated us differently.  They were more welcoming and accepting of our relationship since we jumped over the broom and made it official.  Believe it or not, I enjoyed being treated like an "in-law" instead of just "the boyfriend." 

Although I do not think we are completely out of the "newlywed" stage, things are pretty much settling down.  The purpose of this post was not to try to spout of marriage advise or anything because I'm pretty new at it myself.  The purpose of this post is to let people know that marriage ain't as bad as I thought it was going to be.  Either I got the best wife in the world...or the other shoe is going to drop very soon.