I Love Brennan

Here's the thing about all good marriages...you love each other dearly and you drive each other absolutely crazy, but at the end of the day, or rather a few years into it, those things you try to change about each other that first year of marriage actually become endearing in time. One such thing about Brennan is he doesn't know there's such a thing as discretion and while I am by no means a tight-tongued Tammy, I do have a really strongly rooted-often misguided-Victorian-prudish-paranoid sense of propriety. Our two positions leave a great chasm between us and one that is often bridged by Brennan overlooking a great deal of censoring and vicarious apologies on my side and me overlooking the fact that Brennan processes information (and smells) verbally.

Today we were sitting in Church when I must admit we were assaulted with a terrible and terribly potent smell. Our brains registered the odor at precisely the same second. We looked at each other and in an urgent whisper (which was actually the volume level I would use when trying to get some one's attention across a crowded indoor swimming pool) across our four kids, Brennan said, "IS THAT BEN? GET HIM OUT OF HERE!" Before he finished I had managed to apprehend Benjamin and much to my relief cleared him of any bad smells. When I looked back at Brennan and communicated Ben's innocence I expected to see the relief on his face. Imagine my surprise when I saw his face take on a look of further annoyance as he said, "THEN WHO STINKS?" I watched in dream-like helplessness as he looked around the vicinity of chapel pews as if expecting someone to stand and own up to their indiscretion in the middle of Sacrament Meeting. I shot him a look of pleading for him to let it go, but he looked at me and said, "NO, THAT IS HORRIBLE, WHO DID THAT?!" The people in front of us were crying they were laughing so hard and when I noticed them I forgot that I was just about to explode with disbelief and horror and remembered that I actually love this about him. Brennan keeps it real and Brennan cuts right through the stink and in the end people are rarely offended by him, they only find him all the more love able because he isn't afraid to show his true crazy colors. I love Brennan.