Strong Bonds Success

The Strong Bonds marriage enrichment retreat that the Army arranged for Ashley and I was a big success. We spent three full days away from home, and about two days in Columbus, Ohio. We were flown on Southwest Airlines, and I must say, I was really not a fan of their open seating policy. We stopped in Chicago for a layover, and Ashley and I both noticed the difference in the general atmosphere between that city and Denver. People in Chicago are just downright rude! I guess I shouldn't expect anything less; it has a reputation as a hard town.

The hotel in Columbus was very nice, considering that this was an Army event. The Columbus Airport Marriott treated the conference guests very well. The hotel's catered food and restaurant were good, the conference room was stocked with water and writing materials, and the rooms were clean and relaxing. As for the retreat, it was presented as a seminar, with short classes interspersed with small group and couples discussions. We learned some of the reasons couples can have problems, and learned some communication techniques to deal with impassible arguments that just escalate and never get resolved. Ashley and I haven't experienced a lot of those arguments, but we're still young in our marriage. I'm thankful that we can generally work together, but these techniques will come in useful for some of the harder things, I think. We also thought about some of the things that bug us in our marriage, and then linked that to our expectations of marriage, and thought about whether those expectations are valid or not. We talked about hidden issues, and personality quirks, and how they affect our marriages. Beyond all of the classes, it was just nice to get away from life for a couple of days, and focus on each other.

While we were in Columbus, the hotel offered to shuttle us to a local mall called the Easton Town Center. Everyone seemed to think it was the thing to do. I'll admit, it was nice. There were lots of shops, and a combination of indoor and outdoor shopping. But I don't think there were any shops we don't have at one of the malls here in Denver. I wish we could've seen more of the town, but we really only had one evening free. One thing Ashley and I did enjoy was The Cheesecake Factory. Even though we have them around home, we've never eaten there. If the local restaurants can do as well as the one at Easton, I think we may have found one of our new favorite places to eat.

Since coming back home, I finally bought a new car for myself. I went with a 1998 VW Jetta GLX. It's a V6, 5-speed manual, and it's very fun to drive. The car's in decent condition, but has a few quirks and small maintenance issues. One of the rear windows doesn't open, and neither does the sun roof, so they probably need motors replaced. The cruise control isn't operational. Still, the engine is good and has no leaks, so I'm happy. I just pray that this doesn't become one of those constant-maintenance cars that nickels and dimes you to death.

Besides that, I've been doing a few bus runs, and helped with a party for Ashley's uncle this past weekend. The party was a lot of fun, but Ashley and her mother had to do a lot of house cleaning and reorganization beforehand. She's still exhausted. On Monday, we helped Mike move out of the house and into an apartment in Boulder. He's finally been accepted into CU (congrats!), and will be starting there at the end of the month. He's located very close to campus, and the apartment's not bad. It is expensive, though. Best of luck, Mike.