Nicole Tasker Woods

The seasons do exist in Los Angeles, though not to the extremes I grew up with in New Hampshire. Winters are rainy instead of snowy. Summers are dry instead of humid. Spring gets lost between fall and summer instead of standing out as rebirth for newly planted bulbs and baby green grass. Or maybe that’s just how I remember it. I think that from the moment you are born and grow up with your immediate family, everything around you has a strong impact on how you’ll turn out in the next 20 years. What you remember as “home” is something you strive to recreate in your apartment or townhouse with your significant other, upon moving out from under your parents roof. And it is never perfect until you have made a new home in this next chapter of your life.

The day after my wedding was the day my Daddy officially handed me over to my husband. There was the ceremonial event the day before where he walked me down the aisle with my eyes tearing, but not letting any fall to fall on my make-uped cheeks. We hugged and he shook Ryan’s hand and then we said our vows. But the following morning over breakfast—that is the day my Mother made me surrender my credit card that was in my parent’s name.

It was something they had given me before I left home for college in order to buy gas or a couple special meals out with friends when the school’s food was giving me the blues. I had also used it over the last year while I was in the process of planning my wedding and purchasing my dress, alterations, veil and anything else I came across that I just had to use on the big day.

I can still remember my Mother saying, “Now give Daddy the credit card” (probably the saddest words I had ever heard). She snatched it from my Dad’s hands and she proceeded to destroy it by folding it and breaking it apart. “She’s yours now!” My parents said this with too much glee as they looked at Ryan, who rolled his eyes when I opened my hand in front of him, “Give me your credit card.”

Since then, it has all been a blur. Next month is our three year wedding anniversary and we have finally gotten a routine down with our house, cars, jobs, yearly European vacations and Cali (of course). Now that summer has ended and football season has begun, I feel as though life could not get any better. Go Pats!!!