Anniversary v. 1.0.0

Tomorrow my beloved and I have been married a whole year. And I know I just wrote him a cutesy letter but I can't let the day go by without something. Don't mind that I'm not actually going to be "here", we'll be out eating dinner and spending the day together. I wrote this entry last week while watching "Friends" and baking cookies and he was napping in our room and our 4 tax deductions were laying around being lazy slugs.

We have had many discussions about "where" to eat this dinner because my favorite nicey nice place happens to be were I went on wedding anniversaries with the last Mr. So we were faced with finding a new place to eat, or turning Red Lobster into OUR place and forgetting that it meant something to me with someone else. Lucky for me Mcdonalds isn't that special so we don't hae to worry about where he took his last Mrs. I'm a shit. I know.

I recently read a blog where this gal posted 44 things about herself on her 44th birthday. I thought that was neat and look for the 33 on my 33rd installment in May. But for our first wedding anniversary...1 on our 1st? Well that's stupid. I thought very very briefly about doing 365, and realized that was even stupider. So 52 for the number of weeks we've been married it is. 52 facts about us that you may or may not know, and most likely could live the rest of your life without ever knowing. But you're here now, so why not read for another 5 minutes? Learn something useless. It might show up on an episode of "Who wants to be a millionaire" someday...

1. Remember being a kid and getting sentences assigned and you thought you'd number the page first to save time, only to realize it was going to take 2 lines to write out what you would not do in class again? This is like that. But not because I'm not "writing", I'm typing.

2. Rodney and I met on myspace. To be truthful I found him, looking for some other person who's name I didn't know but I did know the face and thought it'd be fun to make friends. I saw Rodney's photo and he looked like just my type. Not too vain that he outshined me, and his interests were similar to mine. This seems shallow, I know, but remember, this was all a basis on whether I'd chat wiht him or not. Not date him. I made that decision when I realized he was my intellectual equal as we began speaking.

3. To make a long story longer, we instantly clicked and our first online conversation was 1 sentence and expanded by a sentence each time. We were like poker players very reluctant to show our hand. So we did, one card at a time.

4. Our first date was November 1st, 2008, and he took me bowling.

5. We both agreed that the movies make a lousy ass first date since you don't talk at all and all it does is prolong getting to that point that you realize the other person sucks and is a waste of your time. We cut right to the chase.

6. We've never been to a movie together.

7. Our 2nd date was November 13, 2008. He sent me flowers to my work, the first time a guy ever sent me anything and I bawled like a little girl. We went to arbys that night for supper.

8. November 14, 2008 was our 3rd date and we went to Rascals funzone where he did not hold my hand as we rode go carts together. He played skeeball to win me tickets which I cashed in for 4 bouncy balls to give to our children.

9. I held his hand first. I made all the moves. I rawk because I'm proof that if you want it, sometimes you just gotta grab it.

10. We decided to move in together the week of Thanksgiving, on a Tuesday. It just made sense to us. I still do not regret moving so quickly.

11. We were both removed from our parents at 5 years old and placed into group homes. This left a lasting impression and he's the only person who "gets" this piece of trivia about me.

12. He's self taught on the guitar, I'm self taught on my camera.

13. As children, we both read dictionaries for leisure. Try to outspell us. And typos don't count.

14. We both smoke, but can't stand being in a room with smoke.

15. We spent the first part of our first year of marriage with unemployment. We figure if we can survive that, we can survive anything.

16. 10 days after we were married on March 31st, he calls me at work and asks if I want to be a cop's wife as he was asked back to the sherrif's dept. Without hesistation I encouraged him to follow his heart back to his dream, and I will never regret that decision no matter how hard it's been to adjust. I live in a marriage where we encourage each other to pursue our dreams and that goes both ways.

17. We are both anal obsessive about things like toilet paper, removal of body hair, and hand washing.

18. He always wanted more children...and suddenly he found himself with 3 more girls. And he was totally thrilled.

19. He loves to eat out as much as I do.

20. He gets my seriously sarcastic sense of humor, because he has the same sense of humor himself.

21. I'm not even halfway done. This was harder than I thought.

22. We both have this insane need to have completed collections. Like DVD shows, we buy until one series is complete before we move on to another one. Or maybe that's just me and I pretend it's him too to justify buying television programs in their entirety.

23. He had never watched "Sex and the City" before me and now knows all the character names. Oh, was that embarrassing. Sorry hunny.

24. Everyone in his family calls him RJ. I do not and will not. I don't do nicknames. It's not Rod, Roddy, Elrod, RJ, JR, etc. And he is so grateful. With me people can get away with Jules or Juice or a very select few get to call me "Red".

25. We are both very self involved. Neither one of us trusts many people to be very social.

26. Wow, I only did 5 more?

27. We both agree that I make the best cookies ever.

28. His birthday was right around Father's day in 1978 and my birthday was right around Mother's day 1977. That's right folks, I'm older than him. And he was his father's father's day gift too.

29. He is quiet but not shy. I'm shy but not quiet.

30. He won't buy me appliances for a gift. So he just goes out and buys them for no reason so we have them. I love that mix of old fashioned with feminism.

31. He is addicted to buying me giraffes. I'm addicted to buying him ice cream. And tshirts and cologne.

32. We knew each other 141 days when we got married. I guess I could have done "141 things about us" but then, that'd take me 141 days because this has turned into a 4 day project. And for the mathmaticians out there, my pregnancies lasted twice as long. Each.

33. I guess we aren't nearly as whitty and fun as I like to think in my head.

34. Only we are and it's hard to translate it into words. It's such a shame we don't have many friends to see our awesomeness.

35. We both have pretty intense trust issues. But not with eachother.

36. Before Rodney I was missing that "I miss him" gene. I miss very few people. I guess I'm a touch antisocial. But when he is gone, I ache. When his great grandmother passed away last year, I stayed home all weekend with worry while he traveled. That's how I knew this was real and would last. When I couldn't stand that he wasn't home. I used to get to where I wanted whomever I was dating to just go home already. And with Rodney, him being here is home.

37. Before we actually met, we messaged eachother on myspace. He didn't have internet at home so he would go to the library right after work and send me a new message. I got text alerts on my phone and would hop on and waste a WHOLE lotta data time reading it, crafting how I would respond. These messages came through at 3pm so every day until he started the academy, I got a 3 pm phone call from him in memory of our first weeks of talking.

38. I realize this is WAY more info than more people want about us, but I don't care. I put it all out there because that's how I live my life. One day we'll have an album with 50 of these yearly anniversary letters.

39. Speaking of journals, we used to keep one back and forth. And if you make fun of him for writing to me, he'll punch you then I'll punch you. But we stopped writing in it because A)I don't handwrite, I type. and B) it got old saying "I love you" and nothing more on each page. I mean what else could I think to write? Me?

40. I don't know that he'll read this entry on his own, but I will totally be smooshing his face up to the screen and saying "that's Bullshit Rodney and ya know it!" (sex and the city line--he'll know that because he says it daily and it's a riot.)

41. After much debate we will be dining at Logan's Roadhouse Sunday. I haven't been since 1996. God I'm getting old. Hopefully the food will taste good enough for a return visit on our anniversary every year.

42. We ate at Rock Bottom Brewery last month on our early anniversary present of staying in a fancy hotel downtown. It was not that impressive, except when we mentioned that the rice was like little pebbles, she gave us a free dessert.

43. We are big on customer feedback, good or bad, because we wind up getting free stuff ALL the time.

44. Luckily, we agree on politics, but it's not something we discuss often.

45. Now he calls me every day at 4:30 pm. I'm always on my way home with the girls, about 5 miles into the drive up north.

46. We've moved twice since November.

47. He knows a 3rd move would probably send me to the nuthouse. I'm not kidding.

48. He loves that Trinity wants to be a cop like him. He's going to take her to the cop store because cops are like rock stars to her.

49. I think Trinity is as close to his own child as he was going to get besides his other daughter. He was unemployed for a few months and to help out, he babysat her every day. I couldn't figure out why she loved her Wotney so much other than he is a good guy, until she blows the whistle on him one day, he had fed her ice cream, french fries, and chocolate bars. :D

50. For Trinity's 5th birthday he took her to the store and bought her a baby doll and flarp. I cried because it was so sweet. I think she has him wrapped around her finger. She waits for him to get home every night and turn her tv off and give her hugs goodnight.

51. For my 32nd birthday he threw me a party, with just us 2 but I had balloons and a cake and he had a table full of presents for me. It was the best birthday party ever.

52. He works hard everyday to make my dreams come true, and I do the same right back for him. It's been a wonderful first year and I look forward to every single year hereafter. I love you hunny!

And as I'm feeling especially nostalgic and loving this eve of our wedding anniversary I'll add one more note of mushy: Thankyou Rodney for not only rescuing me and my broken soul, but rescuing my girls from a dark life with a sad mommy. Thankyou for breathing new life into this family every single day with your smile, your willingness to run out and get whatever will make any one of us 5 girls feel better when we are down. Thankyou for putting us on the front burner and being the man that we all needed in our lives. Thankyou for putting my heart back together slowly as it's been broken for 28 years. Thankyou for loving me unconditionally and never once making me "earn" a goddamn thing. It's just given. I've never had to earn a compliment, a gift, time, money, you just give it. Thankyou for creating a home where love is free, dreams are encouraged, and happiness is hoped for but not always expected of us. Because sometimes the clouds hang over and there's nothing we can do and you do whatever you can to break up the clouds and bring about the sunshine.

On this eve of our anniversary, I remember a year ago right at this moment. My back ached as I put together my floral arrangments and cried as I saw my dress hanging up that it was really happening. I cried the whole next morning and everyone thought I was stupid but I think that is a sad fact. That no one else could relate to being THAT FUCKING HAPPY on their wedding day. I truly married my best friend and every day of my life, I'm so greatful for a man like you. I'm greatful that we don't have to work at loving eachother. It just happens. THey say love is work and I'd like to know what asshole wrote that book. Because with you, it is the most natural thing in the world. I love you more and more every day and I love you more than the day I married you.

Thankyou making everyday a gift. I love you.

Ok. Mush over.