Is this all there is?

This has been a lifelong question for me and is also the title of an unfinished book I have been working on and hope to one day finish, and yes, publish.

I love my husband, more than I thought I could love another person and I am so glad that I took the leap of faith and look forward to many years together.

I have observed married couples for years, ones with what I considered to be good marriages, ones that I considered to be people who never should have been married and others that were just going through the motions. Even with my observations of the "good" marriages, I still find myself wondering, is this all there is? Is this the brass ring we all strive for? To be drunk in the intoxication of falling in love, then get married, have a family and settle into a life of routine and taking one another for granted? If we don't all know, we should know that marriages don't just explode or implode when they fail, they simply go flat, from inattention.

My husband is an adrenaline junkie - when people hear that, they smile. I have learned that I am a romance junkie - when people hear that, they think I need therapy!! Why should I have to give up wanting to feel like a princess, like the princess he treated me as pre-marriage? Why do we all say we will never take one another for granted only to do just that? I am just as guilty as anyone and the whole issue bugs me! I truly would rather have 15 minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special - to quote a phrase from a wonderful chick flick, Steel Magnolias.

It's one of those days, clearly. There is a pile of laundry in front of my washing machine that, if I stand upon it, elevates me from 5'4" to at least 5'7" and a half a dozen other things that I need to get done today. Don't get me wrong, I am grateful to love and be loved and every day that life offers me, but that doesn't mean I want an "ordinary" life. I want an extraordinary life, and that just doesn't seem like too much to wish for.