Friends and relatives Readers who have been following this blog know that my husband frequently appears in my blog posts as “Mr. Excitement”. I hope new readers will continue to somehow find themselves at Boomeresque, so I think Mr. Excitement finally deserves an introductory blog post. (Especially because I’ve already written two about Dino — our dog.)
Having an exciting time at the beach. This is how Mr. and Mrs. Excitement “roll” much of the time.
I first conceived of Boomeresque as a serious, “nothing but the facts” travel site. I assure you there are plenty of facts and some photos of beautiful places in my blog posts. I’m a lawyer so, of course, you can trust me with the facts. However, as my blog has evolved, it seems the “voice” my readers are most drawn to is one where there’s a real, live person behind the words. Given that I’m the real, live person, Mr. Excitement is going to be there — a lot.
Atop Huayna Picchu in Peru during our 1982 honeymoon. You can tell by my attire that we didn’t realize how exciting a climb it would be.
Mr. Excitement is mentioned quite often because for over three decades, we’ve been together for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health ….. you know the rest. And before that, we were “just friends” for ten years, having met in 1971 at our work study jobs in the Williams College fresh”men” cafeteria. (Thank you to whomever it was who assigned us both to sort silverware that day).
But why “Mr. Excitement”?
It’s because he’s part of Mr. and Mrs. Excitement. One of my two sisters once explained our respective marriages this way:
[She] married our father. (Her husband is a very outgoing clown. No, seriously, he’s a real clown). Jenny (our younger sister) married our mother. (She married a nurturing nurse practitioner who still packs lunch for her to take to work). And Suzanne — married herself.
In our family, I have had a reputation for being overly serious, responsible, reserved, rigid and inflexible. (My wild and crazy phase lasted for about two weeks during law school —don’t ask.) Steve’s family viewed him in a similar light. Hence, our marriage was dubbed the union of “Mr. and Mrs. Excitement”. They were being sarcastic ironic. (I guess you won’t be shocked to learn that we are both the first born child in our respective families).
Four Things to Know About Mr. Excitement
Dressed for his day job.
1) His real name is Steve Albelda. He’s a physician-scientist and professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. His research is focused on trying to find effective treatments for mesothelioma and lung cancer. (This could be why he’s kind of a serious guy).
2) In his research laboratory, he has trained other physicians and scientists from all around the United States and the world. He also collaborates with other medical researchers nationally and internationally. Therefore, his work results in many travel opportunities.
Although I would like you to believe that the New York Times and/or National Geographic pay for all my travel because I’m a brilliant travel writer, it appears they haven’t yet discovered me. Therefore, I’m very lucky that Steve invites me along as a trailing spouse on many of his work trips. When possible, we tack on vacation time to be able to see more of wherever his work has taken us—not to mention that he did a three month sabbatical at the University of Hawaii Cancer Center. We raised our two sons about 15 minutes from my parents house, so I was able to travel with him even when they were young. My parents would move into our house while we were gone. Now, the only other occupant of our empty nest is our dog. He is a really nice dog, so there have been friends and relatives who seem are happy to have him stay with them. (Read my blog post about how to travel without your dog.)
Mr. and Mrs. Excitement seeming to amuse the elephants at the Elephant Nature Park outside Chiang Mai, Thailand.
3) Over the years, Steve has proven that he really meant that “for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health” thing. He works long hours and he usually enjoys his work, but he has always made time for me and our sons. We managed to sit down and have dinner as a family almost every night — even the many nights when our boys spent the meal sniping at each other, causing us to wonder exactly why we thought family dinners were a good idea.
4) He’s not perfect. He sometimes uses very bad words during Philadelphia Eagles games.
He got some wings in Chapultepec Park in Mexico City.
Things Thing to Know About Mr. and Mrs. Excitement
We’re way more exciting than they think!
Tell us about the Mr. or Mrs./Ms. Excitement in your life? Do you travel well together?