Editorial
Front Page - Monday, November 23, 2009
Capital City Chatter
Rebecca Brockman
I’ve only been married for about two and half years, but I’ve learned a lot of things during my 880 days of marital bliss. For instance, communication is key to a successful marriage. Well, communication is actually vital for any type of relationship.
Anyway, from the beginning, Parish has been the confronter, while I would rather stew and wait to rehash the argument over, say, a dirty fork. It’s not the best way to handle things, but it’s my way. During the past few weeks, Parish has been very busy running his concrete business. He does a lot of jobs in the Morrilton, Center Ridge area and business has been booming. If the job lasts a few days, he stays with his parents who live in that area of the state. No problem, I enjoy the quiet nights and I’m not totally alone, Mona Lisa (my cat) keeps me company.
Like I said, he’s been busy lately and we only see one another about every other day or sometimes less. We like being together, so we decided last weekend to go somewhere and relax. I had heard good things about Petit Jean Mountain and suggested we get a cabin or something up there. Parish really liked the idea and I got online to find out the price of rooms. While I was searching for rooms and dreaming of a nice weekend away, Parish’s cell phone rang. It was a client that wanted a bid for a house slab, “I can come by on Saturday,” Parish said. Saturday? Our Saturday? I closed the Petit Jean reservation window on the computer and went somewhere to stew.
Parish found me and explained that he talked to this lady a few weeks ago and they had a hard time pinning down a day to meet. “Why don’t you go with me?” he asked. I paused and then he added, “We could go to Petit Jean afterwards.” I was sold.
The client lived in a town named Hector or Appleton or Jerusalem, Parish wasn’t completely sure. The family turned out to be really nice and I had a good chat with the lady – she even put me to work when I got there! They had a question about the foundation of the building they were constructing and she brought out the laptop and asked me to find the company’s Web site.
Picture this – we are out in the country and this woman walks out from her trailer carrying a brand new laptop and asks me to log on. Then she brought a metal chair and placed it under a huge magnolia tree and I went to work. It was a nice office, I was honestly ‘made in the shade’ as I looked up the Web site and typed away.
Eventually Parish gave the family a bid and we headed to Petit Jean. This was our first visit to the mountain and we enjoyed the sights and even ventured out on a hike. The weather was absolutely beautiful and we had the best time catching up on our week and talking about life.
No cell phones, no jobs, no interruptions, it was just Parish and I on a rocky trail. When we finally got home that night, after a long time in the car, we were just exhausted. Looking back, it was a great weekend, we met some nice people, helped them in their journey to build a home and enjoyed some awesome Arkansas scenery.
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