Marriage Preparation Class #1

As part of the church-sanctified-marriage qualification process, we have to attend 10 + 1 marriage preparation classes. Yay!

As you might already know, I am an introvert and therefore I dislike being in groups of people, especially people I don't know. But, there we were, sitting in this windowless room for our first class, looking back and forth at the rest of the couples, who I might add mostly seem to be naïve and truly in need of this course. Bookly kept smiling at me and was whispering a little joke in my ear when the facilitators came in.

Oh, yeah! Here's a quick story about Bookly and how he may have already set the tone for how him and I will be perceived in this class. He called and left a message with the marriage prep class facilitators to call him back with the details of the first class. When the wife of the facilitation team called back, he didn't look at his call display and just answered the phone expecting it to be me, "Hey Hon..." She was not impressed, especially when he started laughing at the situation. So when she walked in only to see Bookly uncontrollably whispering and snickering in my ear, she must have thought he was going to be too much to handle, given the look on her face.

Anyways, the first thing they did was insist on taking our pictures as a couple so they can show the new class off to the church congregation. Given the similarly annoyed and uncomfortable reactions of everyone else in the room, we weren’t the only ones just learning about this. After we watched a few couple’s awkward and predictably playful bickering about "come on… oh come on…" "no! I don't have my face on!" we just stood up to volunteer and get it over with, secretly trying to make the seemingly naïve couples feel as immature as they were acting. Really people, you’ve got to learn to roll with the punches – you’re getting married after all, a simple picture shouldn’t be a problem.

After the pictures were done and we were sitting down, the facilitators pulled out a thick pile of booklets – 180 question questionnaires. All of us couples were then told, for the first time, that we’re to fill out these questionnaires (over the next 1½ to 2 hours) and that our answers will show each individual of the pair what things we’re in agreement on, and which things we need to discuss – therefore also determining the topics that will be covered over the rest of this marriage preparation course. Then it happened. They separated the men from the women for the questionnaire.

As my brat of a man walked out of the room, he looked back with a slightly mocking, mostly empathic expression, wagging his pinkie finger goodbye to me.

Goodbye Bookly, I'll miss you.

Only 10 more classes to go.