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Monday, June 28, 2010Happy Anniversary Sweetheart!
29 years ago today I drove to the church and remember doing 5-6 laps around the parking lot before finally deciding to park out front and go in. I was not really worried about the actual getting married part I was however worried about what our friends were plotting for the car and I was right, when we sold that car years later it still had birdseed in it!
29 years is a long time. We ve actually been married to each other more than half of our lives, we ve been together longer than we ve not been together.
Remember our honeymoon? We stayed at a fancy downtown hotel in Charlotte and flooded the bathroom with bubbles when we put the whole box of bubble bath in the Jacuzzi. I had just purchased a Volkswagen camper van and the day after the wedding (and while the bubbles were still receding) we took all of the cash we had in the world (about $500) and headed west to see the country. That Van was a traveling machine, it had no air-conditioning but it did have both cassette and 8 track tape decks and with the camera case on the gas pedal it had a cruise control!
How do you stay together for 29 years?
I think our parents set the stage for a long marriage. Both sets of our parents (all of who are still alive and well) are still together today. I think this instilled a model to try to emulate for the two of us as most folks IMO just give up to easily.
I must have been very lucky at age 19. I remember when you walked in and sat across the room from me in Mrs. Fowlers Geometry class. I noticed you the second you sat down. I think I was too young to have any reasonable idea of what we were doing but I knew that day, the path forward I would take.
We were "dinks" , double incomes no kids and had the ability to travel the world and party (and we did). I wish we would have had our kids earlier but I am glad we waited, as we were both able to grow up a little (ok a lot). We had our first child after we had being married 16 years. I have learned that children are a lifetime project and with this project and new responsibility we have seen it all, been full of pride, frustration, fear and excitement and there is more for sure to come. I think our marriage has taught our kids a little about teamwork and responsibility and they have in turn taught us to lighten up and not take things so seriously (they still don't know how good they have it).
For me marriage is not a 50/50 proposition it is 110/110 work at it project. We have been far more fortunate than we deserve. We have never lived in a conventional neighborhood (well once) but instead had geodesic domes and airplane hangers. We have been close to killing each other many times, said things we wished we hadn't, done things we wished we hadn't, we have had sickness and health, we have certainly been richer, and now poorer but all in all we have done OK.
There is no such thing as a perfect marriage, only perfect moments we have had a lot of them "moments" but I am thankful for that "moment" years ago when some unnamed person who we never knew assigned you to Mrs. Fowlers geometry class.
Happy anniversary Sweetheart, I love you & lets do 29 more!
