A New Beginning for the Kapps

Very exciting news... but let me give you some background first.

When Rich and I met, I was working and in school part time, HE was working and in school part time, and we were separated by a six hour drive. Fast forward a bit, and my mom got sick. I took a semester off of school and in time, left my job and moved back to NJ to be with her. Rich spent all his off time coming down to NJ and sitting with me in the hospital. Then, my mom died and I stayed in NJ and finished grad school schlepping back and forth to NYU. Rich and I still continued the long distance thing and saw eachother on my off school time and his off work AND school time. It was a lot of scheduling.

Things improved when I gave in and moved upstate. For awhile, I was grieving and he was working and going to school on his off time. I was depressed and knew no one up here, which meant I pretty much attacked him like a needy dog whenever he walked in the door.

Time went on. We got married. I got a job. His shift schedule changed to a twelve hour shift which meant he was either working 6AM to 6PM, or 6PM to 6AM. It was not pretty. Rich finally finished school about a year and a half ago and finally got his diploma in the mail a few months back due to many an administrative hassle.

Well, I am thrilled to announce that Rich got a promotion at his company. It became official yesterday. He'll be an engineer.. but who cares about all that. HE'LL BE WORKING DAY HOURS. (Were you expecting another type of announcement?) ;-)

I am sure that none of you have any idea how big a deal this is. No more will I have to open my desk drawer, take out his shift calendar grid, and think about whether an "N" on a day means that he starts midnights THAT night or the night before (typically it means the night before because the second half of the shift is on that day) before I make any plan. No more will I have to try and memorize a six week rotation (much to Rich's dismay, I NEVER memorized his schedule).

Can we make plans on Memorial Day? Hell yeah. July 4th? You betcha. Never again will I be sitting alone on Christmas with nothing to do because he's working. We will never have to do a special early Christmas again because Rich has to work on Christmas Eve.

I am so proud of him for finishing school and getting this job. And I am so happy for us that he is getting this job. I cant wait to actually have a normal daily routine.. I cant wait to actually get to sleep in the same bed as him for four weeks in a row.

After six years, The Kapps are becoming a normal couple.