Two posts in one day! I'm a crazy woman! Mostly, this one couldn't wait.

Last night, while my parents watched tv, I asked my mom if, after this show ended. I could show her my pictures from my recent trip to New York. She looked down at me where I was sitting on the floor, made a face, and then said “tomorrow.” She returned her gaze to the television.

“Tomorrow? But why not now?” She paused for a long time.

Without taking her gaze away from the commercials, she said, “because I want to go skinny dipping in the pool after this show is over.” Ignore it ignore it ignore it ignore it.

Ignoring was a success, so I said, “but it only takes 7 minutes and 14 seconds!” That’s a fact. I set the slideshow to fit a song that exact length.

Mom made another face. “No, tomorrow.” I looked up at her with a pouty lip, so she continued. “I won’t be able to enjoy them tonight. I’ll just be thinking about how I want to be naked in the pool.”

Ignoring it didn’t work. My brain exploded a little, and I gave in. We would look at my pictures tomorrow.

By the way, the pictures I wanted to show her included this gem:

"But I want you to be happy."

A few days before I left for the trip that stained my car red, I told my grandfather that I was leaving to help my boyfriend move from Staunton to New York. He mumbled his "I am mildly interested in what you are saying" noise, which sounds a little like it lives in his throat, and then nodded. He told me to have a good trip, I assured him I would, and then I started towards my room.

"Lauren," he called after me. "Are you and Justin talking of marriage yet?" At this point, I've been dealing with this question for so long that I alternate internally between screaming while bashing my head against a wall and laughing with a head shake.

"No," I said calmly, letting the laughing and screaming duel it out in my head while I showed no signs of any turmoil.

"Well, is it because you aren't ready to have kids? Because you can get married and put off having kids, you know." This man is determined to debunk any possible excuse I have for not getting married. My only option is marriage, and marriage now.

"No, Poppop. Neither of us are in a place to talk about marriage. I'm not graduating until December, and he doesn't even know where he'll be within the next month, let alone a year from now." I walked away to get some laundry out of the dryer. "Don't worry," I called from the laundry room. "I'll get married one day. I promise."

"Well, I just want you to be happy." Bam. There it is. This sentence actually reads, I want you to be happy according to my definition of happy because you don't know what it means to be happy or how to get happy. Everyone always assumes they know that you cannot possibly be happy and that they know the exact fix for your lack of happy. No one ever considers that maybe you are happy where you are and that rushing things will lead to not happy. It amazes me how much people will not believe me when I tell them I am happy with not being married at the ripe old age of 26.

"I am happy, Poppop. Justin is good to me, and we are in a good place. One day it will be time to talk about marriage, but for now, we're happy."

"Okay," he said with a bit of a question in his voice.

I called Justin to tell him about this conversation. "That's it," he said calmly as if he'd had a good idea. "I'm never going to marry you just out of spite for your grandfather."