Hot For Teacher

My wife and I spent last Friday night at her school’s annual holiday party.

A bunch of teachers stuffed inside a Mexican Restaurant enjoying fajitas.

And time away from the kids.

Their kids, my kids, any kids.

This was the big night out.

My wife was in her element.

Jumping from table to table, making teachers laugh.

Not an easy job.

And she doesn’t drink.

At all.

It was really good to see her enjoy herself.

The last few months have been borderline torture for her, even if she won’t admit it.

Working full-time.

Selling a house.

Raising three kids.

And a dog.

All by herself.

Unfortunately the last part is nothing new.

Ever since that Saturday afternoon in the fall of 1994, when she walked down that hotel aisle, my wife has ALWAYS put my career ahead of hers.

Without any hesitation.

Two days after we got married, she moved 3000 miles away.

Away from her job.

Away from her family.

Away from In n’ Out Burger.

Oh, the sacrifice.

For six years, this California girl lived in the northeast watching the snow pile up.

And watching ME pursue MY dream.

She did it, without any hesitation.

But she didn’t do it sitting on the couch eating Bon-Bons.

She did it from a classroom, teaching underprivileged inner-city first grade students.

She loved it.

And she did it for six years.

Until we moved back west.

For MY career.

And once again, she left her job.

One of the benefits of being a teacher is that there are schools everywhere.

And all schools need underpaid, over-educated people to work there.

Of course landing that job is not as easy as 1, 2, 3.

Or A, B, C.

But fortunately when we got back to the Golden State, she landed a Golden Job.

The dream job of her teaching life.

Right around the corner from our house.

Right down the street from her family.

Right where she wanted to be.

But she was living there as a single mom.

Sure she had the ring, but she didn’t always have the husband.

My job was consuming at least 12 of the 24 hours in a day.

So she raised two kids, had another and worked full-time.

All while I was building MY career.

Five years later later I got promoted.

And with that promotion came another move.

And this move was made again without any hesitation.

Even though it meant leaving her family.

Again.

And leaving her job.

Again.

And yes, leaving In n’ Out Burger.

Again.

But we were doing it for all the right reasons, right?

Well four years into all of those right reasons, I was told my job was no longer needed.

By this point, she had landed another great job.

And she had created another great life for the kids.

So when the opportunity to move to New York came up, it wasn’t as simple as saying yes.

Well, it wasn’t that simple for me.

But it was for her.

Without any hesitation, she once again put her life and her career on the back-burner, right next to the Sloppy Joes.

We created a plan for me to go to New York, focus on MY job, find a place for us to live and get the family ready for their new life.

No hesitation.

No second thoughts.

And that’s what we were doing.

For three months.

And for three months, she was a single mom.

Again.

Working full-time, successfully selling that house and taking the kids to all of the activities they had grown to love.

By herself.

All while I was living in Manhattan, re-starting MY career.

And eating everything in sight.

(Maybe it’s a good thing she doesn’t have the time to read the blog.)

On a Thursday in October she walked into her Principal’s office and notified him that we were moving to the big apple.

And that she was leaving a job that she loved.

The next day I was informed my job was no longer needed.

How’s that for timing?

Fortunately the school has lots of erasers and even more fortunate, she was able to get a quick mulligan from the Principal.

Only George Burns knows what is ahead for me and my career.

But what I do know is after all I’ve put my wife through, this teacher has taught me a helluva lesson about life.

And I thank her.

Without any hesitation.