Sundae Experiment: Ali

Here's part 2 from our first 'Couples Sundae Experiment', let me introduce Ali. (rocking the Mt. Tom's hoodie I might add)...

What’s your favorite part of your day?

Lunchtime.

Wow. I’ve heard breakfast, dinner, and now lunch. Now you have to tell me why..

During the week, it's the time I'm able to get out of my work and just go for a walk, if it's nice out. It’s the one time of the day I take time just for me. I walk, read what I want to read, just relax.

So you have pretty hectic workday?

Not necessarily, I tend to make it that way. More than other people do. My work ethic is quite strong I'd say. I do web design. It’s interesting. I like it.

Will you keep working when you're a mom?

My husband spilled the beans!?

Congratulations!

Thanks.

How are you feeling?

Good. A little weird though. It doesn't seem real yet, since it's been so good, so easy so far. I hear horror stories from everyone else, and I just haven't gotten any of that.

It's not real until you're throwing up repeatedly?

They say the second half of the first trimester can be the worst, so we’ll see.

Speaking of food, besides lunch, what makes you happy?

It's the little things. Like cold ice cream on a hot day. Blue skies. Being outside. Hearing the birds. I especially enjoy waking up to the sound of the birds, that's always nice. We have owls in our backyard. Hearing them go back and forth, that's pretty cool. It’s little things like that.

Have you always felt that way about simple things, or more now?

Definitely more now. As I get older, I think more simply about things. When I was younger, I lived in Holyoke and all you could hear was the traffic, so I think living in Belchertown I really enjoy quiet now. It’s peaceful.

I agree. Quiet is a simple pleasure.

With my family, when we went on vacation it was always go, go, go. There was no down time. It was always what to do, what to see, what to eat next. Now we're married, and we go camping out in the woods where there’s nowhere else to go. It’s just you and nature and a good book, it feels great.

So you're a camper.

I don't know yet. We went camping once. It was quite an interesting experience for someone who had never been before. We were in a tent, and it rained all week. We ended up going home a couple days early. We love to kayak, so when you can't do that when it's pouring the whole time, it’s not so much fun. Every time it would stop we'd try to go, then it would start right up again. It was uncanny how it happened every single time.

I can see why you might not want to ever camp again after that experience. Moving right along then, let me ask you another question. You’ve just given birth to a bouncing baby boy, or girl. If they could understand you, what advice would you give your newborn child?

To relax.

A lot of people are so focused on what other people think about them and what other people think about what they're doing. Don't worry about that, just do your own thing, go with the flow, and don't get uptight about every little thing that comes along.

That's great advice, especially for when they hit high school.

It's taken me a while to get that.

If you were a ghost at your own wake, what would people be saying about you? What would you want them to be saying about you?

Hopefully they'll be saying good things. If it happened now, ‘Oh she was so young.’

Hopefully they'll all be crying hysterically.

No, no, no. Like my husband Jassen has said, if he goes early, he doesn’t want me to cry, rather he wants me to have a big party. That's not going to happen, if you lose someone that important to you, you can't just have a party and laugh about it, but everyone hopes for that. I guess I want them to say, 'She had a good run. She did everything she wanted to do.’

She was a good Mom.

Definitely!

Describe a person, place, event, or time that has had a big influence on you.

I suppose as in everyone's life there are events and things that affect and shape who they are, and I'm sure I have a quite a few, but there's not one in particular that stands out to me. Obviously, getting married was a big thing for me. The first time I moved out of my parents house and lived by myself, that was a big event for me because it showed me that I didn't want to live by myself. Even though it was only three houses down from my parents’, I hated being in that apartment alone. Something tweaked me out a bit, you could say.

Did you make yourself more available after that? Sometimes that works against you, like you send out a vibe of ‘desperate’. So you just decided you didn't want to be alone, and voila, you met someone?

Yah, it did kind of happen that way.

So when did you know he was the one?

Right away. Here's the thing. We first met in kindergarten. Soon after that, he moved to a different town, then he moved back just before high school. We ended up working at the same place in high school. We were always just friends. We hung out a few times but just as friends and always with a group of people, never just the two of us. To be weird about it, whenever I went on a date with someone I never felt nervous, never had butterflies, or any of that until him. And then it was like I just knew. It happened with one of my best friends too. Every time this guy would show up she'd get all nervous, and it was the same way with him.

That indescribable feeling.

He just called me up out of the blue. I'd only seen him once the year before, since we stopped working at the same place.

Sounds like you were just meant to be together. Your husband just told me about his break-up and that Summer of Sundays he spent fishing with Dad. The timing was wrong until it was right...

That’s a great story. Thanks for sharing.