All that said, though, we are very different people, more so than we are the same. I am an extrovert with a capital "E." I am energized when I'm around people, the more the better. I don't much like to be alone. Gerald is an introvert and can exist happily all by himself. That is not to say he doesn't like people. He does. He's equally fine with them or without them. He has worked swing shift for the past 8-1/2 years, 7 years in Billings and the year and a half we have been here in Utah. That means I've been alone with a varying number of kids, five evenings a week for the past 8-1/2 years. I don't do "alone" very well. In Billings, I developed close friendships, so I had lots of connections and really never felt lonely. I haven't been so successful doing that here, but I have Shulamith, so it's okay.
Another clear difference between Gerald and me is our interest in the outdoors. Gerald loves the outdoors, especially when mountains are involved. I don't dislike the outdoors exactly. I love outdoor shopping malls, for example! Gerald doesn't like any shopping malls, even outdoor ones. As I said, he likes mountains. I think mountains are okay, but hiking in them is hard. He thinks it's fun. Hmmm. Over the years, I have figured out a way to enjoy hiking in mountains. I would like to share this, in case any of you marries someone who likes mountains rather than shopping malls You're welcome. This is the key: Tell yourself that if you hike miles and miles uphill in mountains, you can eat anything you want that day and not worry about it because you will certainly burn all the calories you consume.
This did the trick for me anyway. Because another way Gerald and I are different is that I live to eat, while he eats to live. It's just a different way of looking at food. No judgment here. Gerald is perfectly happy eating left over, low-fat food that wasn't even very good the first time around. As long as it satisfies his hunger, it's all good. Not so for me. I am forever dreaming of the next time I get to wander off my "plan" and eat a juicy Smash burger or a large McDonald's fries. And when was the last time I got to be so decadent? Why yesterday. Because we went hiking in mountains. Shulamith and I told Gerald that so long as he carried Swen in the backpack, he could choose a hike as steep as he wanted. Then we proceeded to purchase Cheez-It crackers, striped shortbread cookies, Reese's Pieces, and trail mix (because that is healthy, right, despite the large proportion of M & M's)?
And off we went...
It was a beautiful day for a hike in up Bell's Canyon near Little Cottonwood. The trail head was just ten minutes from our house. Can you see why Gerald loves living here so much? No, not Shulamith. Not Isaiah. Not even Shulamith and Isaiah put together. Mountains. Mountains that are practically just out our front door! We really did have fun, and every foot we climbed, all 700 of them, we reminded ourselves of all the calories we were burning and all the food we could eat as a result. Gerald doesn't care about food, but he does care about geocache. Is that what you call the stuff you find when geocaching? I don't even know. The whole hobby makes little sense to me. You search and search for tiny items that are worthless, just for the thrill of finding them. And you call them "cache." Which to me sounds like "cash." Really? Because "cash" to me means real money with which I can buy real clothes. Never mind. Gerald looked for a couple caches, but found neither. Baby Swen riding on his back needed to keep moving in order to stay happy. Gerald is determined to take Seth back there soon to find those caches!
Now you might be wondering why there are no pictures of Gerald here. Well, except this one:
It's simple. As opposite as we are, we apparently have yet one more thing in common. Vanity. Who would have guessed? Everyone knows I'm the most vain person on earth. I scrutinize all photos of myself before I allow them to be published anywhere, and I carefully delete all crappy ones. But Gerald? No, not Gerald. He doesn't care about such things, right? Wrong. When I asked him to put the hike photos into my drop box, so I could access them for Facebook and my blog, he did. But several were missing. Which ones? All the ones with him in them. Shulamith took at least a half dozen pics of Gerald and me during the hike, but not one of those was put into my drop box. When I asked why, Gerald replied, "I didn't look good in them." The one above is the only one he sent me, so there you have it.
Opposites attract? Usually, yes. But not when it comes to vanity.
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