Relationships
My Fiancé Wears Sunscreen at Night
And other reasons it’s great to be weird!
It smelled like vacation. Aaaah.
The redolence of an endless summer day on a Florida beach, sun rays penetrating your skin while you circle your toes in the warm, silky sand. That’s the life!
Here’s the thing.
There was no absolutely no beach in sight. In fact, there was nothing in sight. It was 8:30 on a dark winter evening in January and I was freezing my ass off.
The more the wind kicked up in the 10° weather, the more I smelled it amidst the blustery damp mist that sprayed the scowl on my frozen face.
Sunscreen.
Straight out of the Bahamas, coconutty, wind whipping in your hair in the waves … sunscreen.
What the fuck? Is Nick wearing sunscreen at night in the winter?
Well, apparently the coconutty answer is yesssss!
Nick’s odd duck nature rocks my world.
It doesn’t surprise me that Corey Hart wears sunglasses at night. In fact, he must be one of my fiancé Nick’s distant relatives that we will someday discover on Ancestry.com.
Nick wears sunscreen at night. After all, getting burned in the moonlight is a real problem.
There’s also the endless collection of SPF-enriched wrinkle creams, the hand creams readily available at every sink in our home and the small, portable tube of sunscreen that is kept in every vehicle we drive.
But it doesn’t stop there. In fact, that’s just the beginning!
He also has a lush summer bamboo forest in his part-time cold climate backyard, a Geiger counter from the Cold War, an empty Clorox bottle from his favorite late scientist and an archaic coal mining lantern that he has loudly lit on occasion “just to make sure it works.”
And speaking of bamboo, that forest is fed the strangest things. Some days, leftover lasagna is chucked onto the bamboo (expired, of course). Other days, it’s expired produce, old cheese and even bad eggs. We’ve all encouraged him to compost, but he prefers his “Nick way.” (I think the squirrels and raccoons do, too.)
Life is a regular science fair experiment. And I love it!
Weird is good.
In all his brilliant glory, Nick is not alone. If you think about it, a lot of artistic people are pretty weird.
It is said that Da Vinci didn’t sleep. He only frequently napped. Katy Perry collects hair from celebrities. And Lady Gaga once tinkled backstage in a garbage can during a visit to a late show.
Artistic, brilliant people are often eccentric. That’s why they come up with the best ideas!
Nick is a genius, and the way he sees the world has changed my life. It’s broadened my horizons because I’ve learned to think out of the box.
Sure, it’s rather odd that we could build a bamboo village in a climate that’s cold half the year. But everything Nick does happens because he sees problems that can be solved. In fact, he built his bamboo forest to block the houses behind us to create a park-like environment.
He’s wired differently. It fascinates me. But then again, I’ve always been a little off myself, so I feel like I’m in my element when eccentrics frequent my life.
The Weirdo Campaign.
I remember when my friend Tina’s daughter started grade school. She thought she didn’t fit in, so she started a “weirdo campaign.”
There was only one goal. Be as weird as you can be.
That’s when I started embracing this concept. It’s allowed me to find humor amidst my anxiety and to find a greater level of self-love.
So today, I challenge you to start your own “weirdo campaign.” How would your life change if you embraced your inner weirdness?
Try it. Add a little Nick creativity into your life. I promise you’ll never regret it.
P.S. I just walked into Nick’s office and guess what it smells like? It’s a sunny June afternoon. Isn’t it a little early for sunscreen?
