One of the best parts about being in a couple is developing your own little couple quirks. The inside jokes no one else gets. The retold story you had to be there to understand. But can this romantic shorthand get taken too far? We'll let you be the judge of that after you read these stories about the strange things couples from around the world do together.
56. Tackling chores the fun way.
He dumps the laundry on me when it's warm and fresh out of the dryer, and I sort the socks and underwear from inside the pile while he hangs up the shirts and folds the pants. We call it "laundry turtle."
55. Getting rich together.
He absolutely must touch my butt at least once every time we go to Walmart. I can't even remember how this started, but it's totally weird if we forget.
And Floor Dollar. A dollar bill that had fallen out of one of our pockets in the washer, and consequently fell down into the crack between the machines when I was transferring the clothes to the dryer. We both ignored it for like year because we were too lazy to use a broom or whatever to fish it out, and then one of us finally acknowledged it to the other. We decided to leave it there as a symbol of our wealth; we've never been down to our last dollar. It now has a quarter for a friend.
54. Actually a great idea.
When me and my ex would get into dumb arguments/debates we used to “send it to council to be reviewed.” There was no council. There would be no review. It was basically our way of shelving an argument that would never have a winner. Every now and then we’d ask each other if we’ve gotten an update from council on what the judgement was.
We’ve been broken up many years and are still friends to this day. We still check up on if there’s been rulings in our cases. We have decided to “fire” our council for their slow turnaround time.
Pixabay
53. Everything's a competition.
Alright this will take some explaining but me and my husband have a game we call business business. I can’t fully remember how it came about but the goal is to fully and completely clasp the other persons right hand in yours and shake it twice while repeating “business business”. If the other person can get their hand free or shout “business business” at the same time it’s a failed attempt. We don’t keep score but the last person who got in a successful handshake is the winner until they are dethroned. So what started as a little inside joke has spiraled into a full competition with such notable wins as... at my uncle's funeral. While reaching for an offered water bottle (we live in the desert) And in the middle of any and all arguments. It’s gotten so bad that anytime either of us try to hold hands we both have a momentary standoff to make sure it’s not a ploy.
Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay
52. No pressure.
Whenever he sneezes, I shout as aggressively as I can SHUT UP. To which he responds even louder, YOU SHUT UP. This is everywhere. At home, in public, it doesn’t matter. It’s gotten to the point where I consciously have to stop myself from shouting at anyone else who sneezes.
51. Tickle truce.
Armpit trust. It’s the number one rule that cannot be violated, no matter how tempting it might be, you can’t poke the other’s armpit.
Image by Nicola Giordano from Pixabay
50. Groovy.
We have a mating dance that has gotten increasingly elaborate in the decade we have been together. Example moves: slapping one's own butt, moving one's arms like a choo choo train, one-handed clapping.
Some of the moves go out of fashion year to year, but we have a significant repertoire.
Image by Alexandr Ivanov from Pixabay
49. Like bats.
My mate and I do “kissy sonar.”
I am a very extroverted woman and need my existence to be acknowledged every once in awhile. My wife is extremely introverted so conversations constantly are a big no no. So we make kissing noises around the house every now and then as a kind of “I love you, everything’s fine over here- you ok?” A kissy back and we both continue doing our own thing in silence. No kissy back means trying a louder kissy noise, waiting 5 seconds, and wandering out to make sure everything is ok.
Everyone gets what they want. I feel like I’m being paid attention to, she’s not overburdened by talking with me or doing something together, but we still are connected.
This does have the downside of forgetting I am in different company and making kissy noises at my boss or friends during a period of silence. My boss did the kissy sonar back absentmindedly and then had a “what did I just do” face. We now rib one another about it.
48. Clear those sinuses.
Sometimes he puts his mouth over my nose and blows, causing me to make a horrific, monstrous sound of air coming through my nasal passages and out of my mouth. We call this The Exorcism.
It’s gross and weird but I love that we can be gross and weird together.
47. Give them a hand.
Cuddle or hold hands while fighting. It reminds us that we’re not fighting against each other, we need to understand each other and work through the issue.
46. The tummy touch.
We love the feel of our skin touching, like his chest on mine skin on skin. Once while walking a hiking/bike trail we were discussing it and being silly like we are we decided to pull our shirts up and like rub our bellies against each other. That exact moment a man came around the corner on his bike to see two weirdos in the woods with their shirts raised and their bellies touching. We still laugh about that awkward moment. I doubt many other couples casually rub bellies.
45. Love in the animal kingdom.
We sneak up on each other and bite each other on the neck to assert "dominance". We use the "dominance" to win trivial arguments like who do our animals love more.
44. Too cute.
Me and my girlfriend have started using very random and increasing complex pet names when we answer a phone call from one another. It's so often now that sometimes I'll forget and in public loudly answer with "hello my Persian tropical ice cream sweetie watermelon minx." Or something to that effect, it changes everytime.
43. Soon you'll have goosemountains.
We harvest each other's goosebumps. When one of us gets goosebumps on our skin, the other will run their hands up and down on their skin "collecting" them.
Image by physicsgirl from Pixabay
42. An artistic endeavor.
Penis drawings. I don’t remember who started it but we hide the same penis drawing for the other one to find. She put it in my suitcase when I went away on a hunting trip with my buddies and I had to explain why I had a crudely drawn wang on a sheet of notebook paper packed with my socks. When I returned I hid in the bottom of her underwear drawer and it took her a few months to find it. She then hid it somewhere and I haven’t found it yet, that was five years ago. She told me I’ll find it eventually but I’m afraid of where it might be. I have told her that if she dies before me that she is getting buried with it and I win.
41. We all want to be bread.
Well, I just wrapped her up in a brown blanket, rolled her back and forth in bed and told her "Shhhhh be bread, it's okay, just be bread, shhhh, loaf-girlfriend, it's okay to become bread" while she cackled and screamed "I DON'T WANT TO BE BREAD."
Pixabay
40. Shorthand for I love you.
Dated a Swede for a few years. When he taught me how to say I Love You in Swedish, Jag Älskar Dig, I remembered how to pronounce it by saying it as Jog Racecar Day. For the rest of our relationship whenever we wanted to say “love you” or would give each other cards etc, we would just say Racecar.
39. Tell us about it.
We make up very elaborate stories about our cats' lives.
“Where’s Big Cat?”
“Oh, she’s in Taipei today consulting with the Ukrainian Ambassador about the current standing of the silver industry. She’ll be back later though because tomorrow she’s chartering to Mars at 0600.”
38. Whistle while you work it.
What started as a simple whistle to get the other's attention has turned into a full-blown second language consisting of nothing but whistles. ‘Hello’ is a simple high tone whistle followed by a slightly lower tone whistle. To properly say ‘hello’ back you must respond with an even higher pitched whistle sequence or a slightly lower pitched sequence.
‘Warning:danger or distress’ is three high pitched whistles. A sad whistle is one that starts high then quickly goes to a low tone.
We’ve legit had phone conversations where we whistle at each other and laugh for 10 minutes. We thought we were insane (still are but) until realizing there are cultures out there that whistle poetry to each other and that whistling may have been the first way peeps communicated with each other.
37. Night, sweetbutt.
We touch our butts together every night before bed and do a little wiggle. It's part of our routine now and must be done for optimal sleeping.
Image by Bruno Glätsch from Pixabay
36. A present-day Shakespeare.
Pretty sure we're branching off from English and forming our own language based on his...interesting grasp of it. Such as:
I've had to extensively explain that while "pale" can be seen as a compliment, "pasty" is not. Nor is adding onto it by calling me his "pasty beauty."
Cayenne pepper is "Kanye pepper."
"When you go to the store, can you pick up some mexican pitas?" Tortillas.
I get to hear a new one once or twice a week. He's a native English speaker. It keeps things entertaining, and lucky for him he's marrying a speech therapist that is used to decoding language at work.
Photo by Malcolm Garret from Pexels
35. Sounds awful.
We do 'inverted kissing'. Instead of kissing the lips, one of us surprises the other by opening their mouth big and covering the other party's puckered up lips.
It's like kissing the void. It feels really uncomfortable and it's hilarious. She always does it to me when I'm expecting a kiss.
Bonus points if you can kiss the void for over 5 seconds or have your open mouth over their mouth for a long time. We discovered this when I jokingly opened my mouth during a kiss and she started laughing and going 'noooo.'
Image by Tanya Patxot from Pixabay
34. Sleep's important.
We don't sleep together. It's a comfort and convenience thing. He gets up early for work, I don't crawl into bed until 3 or 4 am. I've never been comfortable sleeping with other people because I toss and turn and stretch out every which way, so it just works better for us to sleep in seperate beds in seperate rooms. Whenever I tell people this they act shocked, like it's super weird. We both just like to be comfortable.
33. Good bio.
When in public at Starbucks or restaurants my wife and I sit and make up random peoples tinder profile. The game is you point at someone and then say what you think their bio would be. E.g Karen. Loves long walks and midgets. Keeps her toe nail clippings in zip lock bags in the fridge. Enjoys intelligent conversation and being rammed in exclusivley pizza hut bathrooms. The best one my wife came out with was pointed at a short white bald dude and said. Paul; Black guy. It came out of nowhere and I almost died.
32. Along with everyone else who has a cat.
We have a thing called “squishy face”. Every night after we kiss goodnight we smoosh our cheeks together while making a “murrrrr” sound. It’s weird but it’s stuck and it feels like bad luck if we don’t do it.
Also we have family cuddles with our cat. Hubs holds the cat upside down like a baby while I cuddle them both and we both tell the cat how beautiful he is.
31. You're not alone.
I'm actually curious as to whether this is normal or not, but my significant other and I make a ton of very politically incorrect jokes to each other that we would never make to even our close friends (and we already make off-colour jokes with our close friends). We are both very politically left-wing/progressive/whatever, but when we are alone together, will push the envelope pretty far joking about things like racism (we are both actually people of colour) or domestic violence (never remotely been an issue in our relationship or personal lives) or whatever. Like, Hockey Night in Canada would have a ball firing us.
I suppose it's just that we have a deep comfort level and share a rather South Park-esque sense of humour, but I truly do wonder - we can't be the only couple with our particular political leanings that does stuff like this. Or are we just uniquely terrible and juvenile people?
Image by StockSnap from Pixabay
30. Gotta get creative.
We have online dates. Which doesn’t sound to strange but let me explain.
It’s a long distance relationship so it’s hard to go on dates when we are apart. So instead, every now and again, we get pizza, have some wine and will sit and eat and talk all with cameras on and pretend we are in a restaurant (like actually talk about our own rooms like it’s a restaurant).
Then we either watch a movie together and talk about it, or just get caught up with drinking and chatting, or we will play some sort of game together. Occasionally, sexy stuff happens too, but usually on the date nights we just like our date time and being together (or as close to that as we can get).
Our friends think it’s weird that we do that, so I guess it’s a good thing to put here? I don’t think it’s weird though, I just wanna spend time with someone I love when he’s in a different country.
Image by stokpic from Pixabay
29. Croon a special tune.
My wife usually gets home before I do from work and as soon as I enter she comes to me and we both do a little dance while singing an bollywood song "Mera Piya Ghar Aaya" (My love has reached home). And, then we hug and greet.
It's a little thing which has turned into some sort of ritual. We love it!
One day I rang the bell, before she unlocked the door she asks.. "what's the password?"
I replied in a low tone "Mera Piya Ghar Aaya" in the same tune. She was expecting me to say something "clever" but she enjoyed the song even more because I have a bad voice.
Image by Sachin Goel from Pixabay
28. As long as everyone's having fun.
As an interracial couple, the wifey and I like to play a little game called “you people."
When we’re out in public and engaged in conversation, one of us will spontaneously and loudly ask the other: “WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU PEOPLE?!” To which the other must respond as sincerely as possible, “Well, you know___” and then fill in the blank with a rando factoid about them, like: “people who sleep with socks on.”
You win points when you turn heads, extra points if a bystander laughs!
27. Very heated discussions.
I think the amount we debate and argue is weird. Like, it’s pretty much all we do, and we’re both really into each other for it.
Like, our first anniversary, we got all gussied up, went out to our favorite sushi restaurant, had a glass of wine...and fell into a heated discussion on the role of asceticism in religion and which major religion has the most balanced or productive view on self deprivation. It went for the entire hour we were there, and on several occasions had an audience of concerned but interested bar patrons. We're very much in love.
26. Epic hide and seek.
We try to scare one another by hiding behind doors and jumping out. The other day I parked down the street, sprinted home and hid in the closet. She thoroughly enjoys a good startle. Usually 5 seconds of freak out followed by 5 mins of us laughing. I’m much better at the game than her. She doesn’t know this, but I walk around the house in full stealth mode even when I’m confident she’s out.
25. Canine conversations.
We talk to each other through our dogs, like if one of our dogs come up to me he'll mess with me and say in a cartoony voice "mommy you should rub daddy's feet" or something like that. We don't do this exclusively, we also just talk to each other normally, but through the dogs if applicable.
24. Stealth attack.
We play a game where we try and quickly put our finger in the other person's nose and then their mouth. There is a lot of grappling, sneaking, seduction, and subterfuge involved. It's made kissing a precarious endeavor. You never know when a "feed you your own boogers" attack is coming.
23. Call the F.B.R.
When one of us snaps at the other, the one who was snapped at goes “You snapped, I’m calling the Bureau,” and will pretend to be a raccoon from the Federal Bureau of Raccoons and ask for the person’s name and why they snapped. The punishment is usually to give 10 cuddles to the person who was snapped at. It makes us realise that we sometimes snap over stupid stuff but also the extra affection is super nice!!
22. Ick.
She absolutely hates her belly button being touched. Every now and then I make it a mission to tickle her and wrestle to get my finger in there.
I once lubed up my whole hand and arm so she couldn't stop me. She hates it but it's hilarious.
Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels
21. Slithering along.
Over the years we’ve developed a thing called lizard tongue where every so often, maybe once every few months or even once a year one of us will suddenly aggressively tongue punch the other’s mouth and then retract our tongue. This results in a slap bet situation where the lizard tonguer knows they will receive a retaliatory lizard tonguing, but they don’t know when.
Image by Ale Hidalgo from Pixabay
20. Starting to look alike.
It started as a fun and silly dress-up game, then we found out my husband and I are the same size somehow. Even though I'm a larger busty lady and he's thin as a rail and almost a foot taller than me.
What I'm saying is we share clothes now. All of our clothes. I've gone to work dressed completely in stuff that he's bought for himself, boxers and socks included. (Also wow, boxers are so much more comfortable than panties.) He loves wearing my maxi dresses as PJs and will wear them pretty much every night we're alone. I buy dresses mostly for him now.
Image by JamesDeMers from Pixabay
19. A good time was had by all.
When in public settings such as Wal-Mart, I grab my wife by the arm and shout, “Wait til we get home!”, while simultaneously having a mad look on my face. It has almost gotten me beat up many many times. She’s in on the joke and it’s something we’ve done for about 12 years now.
Photo by Craig Adderley from Pexels
18. They are adorable.
We make baby sloth noises at each other as a kinda sorta 'check in' with each other like 'hey, you okay? All good? Good.'
We can be in different rooms around our place and as long as the other makes a sloth noise back, you know they're good. We've also occasionally used it to find each other when we've lost each in other a store/etc.
Over time I've forgotten it's not exactly normal and one time we 'slothed' at each other when in company of other friends at a gathering and everyone was just like 'what was that?!'
17. Better watch out.
We watch serial killer documentaries and my genius wife breaks down, moment by moment, piece by evidentiary piece, what they should have done in order to avoid capture and then conviction. We literally critique murderers and note how they could have done better.
16. Terrible design flaw.
I taught my boyfriend that if you unscrew your belly button your bum will fall off. Now he pulls me into a false sense of security with gentle caresses then goes in for the kill and tries to unscrew my belly button, at which point I squeal and try to get away while he laughs at me.
15. Just like Brad and Angelina.
We have completely separate bedrooms. We have a healthy relationship sexual and otherwise, but both need our own "space". It kinda started on a vacation when the hotel messed up and gave us a room with 2 queen beds. My husband joked "dont come over here this is my bed!!" And we each slept in our own bed. It was soooooo nice to have all the space. Then later on my work hours changed and I had to be to work at 3am. So I would go to bed at 6pm, and get up at 1:30. He would wake me up getting in bed and I would wake him up getting out. So he started sleeping in the spare bedroom. Over time it had morphed into our own rooms! I like to sleep with the ceiling fan and TV in the background. He likes pitch black and silent. We both sleep better this way. And having out own private space is nice. We joke to our friends we will be married forever because having even though it's weird, having space separate keeps things balanced!
14. Wonder what the cat thinks.
We have kind of a “safe word” used only for arguments. If either of us is getting close to or has stepped on the line, we’ll use it and the argument is over. No one wins or loses, it’s a draw and we leave it alone. That isn’t the not normal part. Our “safe word” is “I poop in your litter box.”
When my husband leaves for work, I stand at the door and say, “Love you” in a high pitch voice. He answers “Love you” in a higher pitch. We repeat that back and forth while he gets in his truck. He always rolls down the window as he backs out of the driveway so we can continue.
13. It is a surprise.
We play a game called Surprise Bum. It’s pretty simple. To ‘win’ all you have to do is catch the other off guard with your naked butt.
So say, I’m on the sofa reading a book. He’ll yell out ‘hey have you seen my keys?’ Naturally I turn around to direct my answer at him and - BAM - there he is with his back to me, hands on hips and pants around his ankles, yelling ‘SURPRISE BUM!’
Image by S. Hermann & F. Richter from Pixabay
12. The walrus doesn't listen.
We used to play go-to-work chicken. Lie in bed. Last one to get up loses.
She didn't really have enough competitive spirit for that one. I kept winning. The next game was Walrus. When you wake up, you lie on top of her with flipper hands down by your sides. When she gets one hand and one foot on the floor she wins and can go to work. In the meantime, if she gets frustrated you make a sound like a walrus and then say 'the walrus doesn't listen to reason'.
11. So there, Hallmark.
Stealth Valentine's Day.
Regular Valentine's Day is overcrowded and overpriced and basically terrible. But the idea of Valentine's, where one person plans a date and gets a card and basically is sweet to their partner(s) for the whole day, that I can get behind.
I'm single at the moment, but in both my last relationships, I introduced the concept of Stealth Valentine's Day. Each participant, once per year, plans a secret day where they save a card from real Valentine's (because it's unsurprisingly tricky to get those cards in November) and plans a nice day for the other person.
So you get n number of Valentine's Days per year, where n = the number of people in the relationship.
And we only once planned our stuff for the same day.
Pixabay
10. It's in code.
We started meowing at each other early on in the relationship, and it eventually morphed into a mrawr (meow+rawr). We know the other's mood from the tone of the mrawr. There's an entire menagerie of animal sounds to share love. Seahorse sound? Couple of mouth clicks and a head butt. Love you!
Also, burping is encouraged in our house, but penalized by the burpee having to make the "piggy panda" which is making "panda ears" on your head, and pushing your nose up like a pig. The piggy panda say, "me me me me". There are rules. No piggy panda is required if the burp happens while eating/drinking.
We have an elaborate bedtime ritual. We have the dance of the lights, I turn them on as we go downstairs to the bedroom, he follows and turns them off. Goodnight kisses entail me saying,"excuse me,where's your face?" And he replies, "right here!" Followed by me kissing his lips, nose, bridge of nose, then making some weird sound as I try to fit his entire forehead in my mouth (weird noise changes nightly), the he does the whole process to my face. There's more, but yeah, suffice it to say, we're weirdos, and I love it.
9. Our little family.
We have many little quirks but this one is by far the strangest.
We have a teddy bear that has sort of become our Pet. She has to come to bed every night with us, if we are both out then she will be on the bed with her "animal friends", a number of other small teddy's that keep her company. When one of us gets home the first thing they do is collect her and she stays with them until the other gets home and then she gets to decide. We animate her a lot to talk to us but she doesn't have a voice, so she uses a lot of sign language. If we are watching a movie or having dinner then she is there.
At sexy times she is put away though we can't have her seeing that!
This started because my boyfriend can easily get upset over inanimate objects if I give them a personality. But then he turned it back on me and it works. So she's a part of us now.
8. Love nibbles.
I'm a huge nailbiter and I actually really enjoy it if that makes sense. My husband lets me take care of his fingernails and toenails in lieu of using clippers because he knows I get a lot of satisfaction out of it. His toenails are crazy and grow fast, and I love it.
I would never ever tell anyone this in real life and I'm only sharing now because I'm anonymous on the internet. Sometimes people who live together for a while just develop weird habits that nobody else knows about.
7. It's what she wanted.
We make declarations about getting divorced and things at weird times over trivial things.
It was our 9 yeah anniversary and I said something along the lines of "Thanks for being with me for the last 9 years" and he said " your welcome. I think we've got another 8 years" I broke down giggling while he explained we are getting divorced in 8 years and then we will date for a while and see how it goes.
Also when discussing what I want done if I die (no funeral, cremated, no headstone etc) my husband said he is going to to get a headstone and have it day "dork" and put it in the front yard. Then when/if people ask he did this fake dramatic cry saying "it's what she wanted."
I lost it. And now I genuinely want him to do that.
Also sometimes when he says something like he isn't a fan of cinnamon or whatever I will tell him to "get out of my house" and he will go stand outside and stare in the window saying "is this what you wanted?"
Image by StockSnap from Pixabay
6. Dear diary...
We have a shared journal that we trade off every so often. When it’s your turn, you can write, draw or whatever really for your entries, Usually it’s about a date or day that was memorable and sometimes we include little things from said day such as stamp cards, pictures, receipts etc. I originally started the journal to give to her one year into dating. Unfortunately one day she came over and I had it open on my desk, she saw it and well the surprise was kinda ruined. We started talking about it and we came up with this idea which has turned into something very special to me.
Pixabay
5. It's a foursome.
We each sleep with a stuffed animal. At the end of the night, before bed, we pretend our teddy bears ask about our day. We do their voices and everything. Hers is from Build-a-Bear so she's new and very naive and gullible. Mine I rescued from a thrift store so she's had a rough past. She is rather ghetto, makes lewd jokes, and tries to be a bad influence on the other bear.
We do this almost every night and it's a fun, lighthearted way to sum up the days events and clear our heads before bed. It's such a thing that our 16 year old daughter started doing it with her stuffed rabbit, which she's had since she was a baby. She has no mouth so she makes humming noises and only our daughter knows how to translate them.
Image by Andrew Martin from Pixabay
4. It is too serious.
If one of us stumbles upon our cat sitting very sternly that person loudly declares, “we have a very serious situation.” The other person must drop everything they are doing, go to where the cat is and confirm that it is indeed very serious. We then have a brief talk about what we should do about this very serious situation. It usually ends with us deciding that nothing can be done. It is too serious. We then walk away and go back to whatever we were doing before.
I have no idea why we do this, but it’s been going on for about 10 years. It’s so normalized we don’t even think about it unless there’s guests over and without thinking about it, you suddenly yell from across the house, “we have a very serious situation here!” and your guests give you this, “what?” look when it turns out to just be a cat sitting still.
Photo by Callum Wale on Unsplash
3. Not exactly a lullaby.
We have a tuck-in routine. I always go to bed first, and my husband tucks me in. It is a multi-stage process:
1) husband closes the blinds and curtains 2) husband shuts the door to the master bath 3) husband checks both closets for monsters. In my closet resides a monster named Bloodcurler 2.0 who always responds “nope, no monsters” when asked whether there are monsters in there. If one of our dogs is in the room, the dog responds “well that’s reassuring!” In my husband’s closet is a monster who responds “it’s just me, Clarence” and Clarence says goodnight to us. 4) husband says goodnight to Lil Homie (I’m currently pregnant) and me 5) I ask husband to turn on the sound machine and he sings part of “Conga” by Miami Sound Machine. He turns on the sound machine. 6) I ask husband to turn off the lights and he sings part of “When the Lights Go Out” by Five. He turns out the lights.
2. Where you last expect it.
My husband used to watch WWE a few years back. Roman Reigns started to gain popularity and we had fun joking about his heel character.
A friend of my husband's pranked him by sending him a Roman Reigns action figure for Christmas ~5 years ago.
To make my husband laugh, I started putting Roman into weird situations, like Elf on a Shelf. He was in the fridge trying to make a meal, he was hiding in my husband's desk holding a pencil...you get the idea. The main goal was to catch my husband off guard and make him laugh a bit.
He started doing it back to me. Roman was in my knitting basket. He was in the secret drawer in a chest we had.
I packed him into my husband's suitcase when we eloped. We took him places and took pics to be silly.
It's been a few years since we had him last. We moved states and moved into a new house recently. I was getting rid of that old chest, and checking to make sure I'd removed everything.
Guess who was in the secret drawer?
I cracked up, immediately put him in our cleaning basket, and waited a full 24 before asking if he'd mind cleaning the bathroom while I unpacked. He found Roman and silently hid him. I don't know when I'll find him next but I have a feeling Roman Reigns is just waiting for me somewhere.
Pixabay
1. Distance is never an issue.
We've been married for 32 years. We're both professionals in career with kids no longer at home. Yet for our entire marriage whenever one of us travels we do something special for the one traveling. My wife's method is to sneak into my luggage and leave little love notes and comments and requests for a hot call on colored cards. I'm talking I’ll pull on a dress shirt and discover a little card in the pocket that says, “call me at 11:00 my time hot stuff”. The people at my work where I travel to the same location now laugh when I reach into a coat pocket, pull one out and read it. Or they see the collection in the pocket of my back pack. I travel 8-12 times a year so this is some work.
My approach is a little different. I write one very romantic or passionate letter or story or poem. Or I sketch something I found beautiful and add a small note. She has saved them over the years so not only one per time she travels but Mother’s Day or birthday, or sometimes random desire to let her know I love her. It's now a small book.
Also, we always end the day in a call together. Even if I’m in Mumbai and one of us has to stay up until 1:00am or get up at 4:am, we always tell each other we love them and good night.
She still tells me the most romantic thing ever was one time I typed two pages of reasons why I loved her then cut them up into tiny pink strips (numbered of course) and then went through all of her personal stuff and hide them in places only she would find them. Like one inside a pocket in every jacket. One inside her thick and thin gloves. One per drawer in her dresser. One in her makeup kit suitcase. And so on. It took her more than seven months to find them all. She said it made her day to find one four months on, just stumble across it. I did get this from the author of a book called 101 Passionate Nights. So I can't take credit for the idea. But it was a total surprise to her. Those two pages of taped together comments are also in her book of love notes.
Yes, she tells me I’m more romantic and mushy than she is.
