The Day I’ll Never Live Down

Girls Rule - Boys Drool

I grew up in a family of all girls.  Because of this, I wasn’t exposed to many things my husband knows and loves from his childhood.  GI Joe, Transformers and Thundercats are a few that come to mind.  I’m not saying that I was devoid of “boy stuff”.  I regularly watched Batman and Spiderman and still hold the original Star Wars trilogy as some of the best movies of all time.  However, I must admit my ignorance to a lot of after-school television that catered to boys.

When it came to prime-time television, my parents were in control.  The basic rules were this, my father was in charge and if sports were on the schedule, that’s what we’d watch.  If no sports, he handed the reins to my mother and she selected our evening entertainment.  Because of this, we didn’t watch many crime shows because she hated them almost as much as she hated westerns.

My point is that I had never been exposed to Magnum P.I. until I met my husband.  He LOVES this show.  I mean really LOVES it.  We almost always have one waiting on our DVR.  When he sits down to watch the episode, he goes to the Magnum Mania website where he can look up plot points, locations, characters, guest stars … basically everything you would ever want to know about that particular episode.

I don’t quite get it, but he doesn’t get my love of Toddlers and Tiaras, so I guess we’re even.

His love of Magnum P.I. had a special significance when we lived in Hawaii.  The show was shot there and, although the islands look MUCH different than they did 30 years ago, we could still locate much of the on-site shots by where we lived, shopped and worked.  And then it happened…

We had the opportunity to go see Robin’s Nest.

We own a pug, which you’ve met, and we would frequently attend a pug meetup group.  They had secured this location as one of their meet-up destinations.  We immediately made plans to join them on their excursion.

As the weeks approached, we started getting a lot of “rules” for the trip.  The one that sticks out in my mind the most is that we were NOT allowed to call it Robin’s Nest.  Apparently the new owners dislike the association with the television show and would not tolerate it.  The whole group could be kicked out for referencing a television show from 30 years ago.  I’m serious. 

You mean to tell me I had the chance
to meet Zeus and Apollo?
I HATE YOU!!!

Eventually we were told that we all had to meet in a specified place and had to enter and exit together.  I’m not one for being trapped in a location without the ability to leave at my leisure, so my disapproval of the outing began to grow.  I started getting annoyed by all the rules and talked myself out of wanting to attend, fearing that we would pay money (which we really didn’t have) and I would be miserable.  We didn’t go and although he never complained, I knew my husband was disappointed.

Now whenever we watch an episode of Magnum P.I. and they show a shot of the estate that is Robin’s Nest, it is met with a sigh.  Not from my husband, but from me.  See, we were newlyweds living in Hawaii and I didn’t quite understand the depth of his love for the show.  He had the opportunity to reach out and touch the Holy Grail of all that was Magnum P.I. and I denied him.  I shall forever have this hanging over my head, unless I manage to scrape together enough money to get us back to Oahu and then convince the owners to let us wander around, so basically when hell freezes over.

I guess when it comes to regrets in your marriage, this isn’t all that bad.  Yet, I wish I could go back to that day, suck it up and just GO.  I never said I was perfect, but I was really a brat that day.  Hopefully one day I can make it up to him. 

Maybe I’ll let him grow a Thomas Magnum mustache and won’t complain when he kisses me.  Chicago is the most mustache friendly place in the United States, after all.  I’ll start practicing my “no honey, you look adorable” face starting today!