My Anniversay Weekend

This weekend was Cyndi's and my 5th anniversary. It may not seem that long to be married but we think it is long enough to have had a successful marriage if she should wise up and leave me.

We like to imagine how we might have come to marrying each other in an alternate universe. If we hadn't met when we did, would we ever? If we were to meet each other today, would we end up marrying? I may get in trouble for saying this, but I don't think so.

As it is, we met in high school through Willy, a mutual friend. Even though he didn't have a car, he offered Cyndi and some other girls a ride to the movies so he could spend time with her best friend, Christi. So, I stole (with the intention of returning) my friend's mom's car and, as an unlicensed driver, drove Cyndi, Willy, Christi, and another girl, Heather, around town that night.

Cyndi was immediately impressed that I was driving a stolen car without a license. High school girls can be pretty lame. Later, she would think picking her up from school and riding around on my scooter were awesome. High school girls of the early 90's were especially lame.

Almost from that evening on, we were always together. We didn't date each other. We each dated other people; I dated her best friend. But we were always spending time with each other. We had very different backgrounds so would argue. We argued about the nature of revelation in the Bible, why Pirate Radio sucked, the death penalty. We would each turn corners in our thinking and never saw our disagreements as threats to our friendship. We would fight and actually seek forgiveness from the other. We could laugh at and with each other, call each other on our mistakes, encourage each other, learn form each other, so in college we started making out with each other.

Now we're married.

Other than family, there isn't another person I have spent more time with. Who I am now is such a product of who I have been with her, that I don't know what life would be like if I hadn't known her all these years. I don't think we would meet. I don't think we would start "dating." I don't think we would run into each other at Trader Joe's. We wouldn't both reach for the same package of Gouda and touch hands then look in each other's eyes and know "it was meant to be." We would be somewhere else, perhaps as happy, perhaps not. We might pass on the street; I could be stuck behind her in traffic and never know.

I like that it has happened. I'm glad this is the course we've taken and she is now stuck with me.


Mr. Pitiful-Otis Redding
Home Coming, et al-Green Day
Days Like This Keep Me Warm-The Polyphonic Spree
Get Up Stand Up-Bob Marley & the Wailers
Cry Baby Cry-The Beatles
When You See the Light-Pete Yorn
Pilate-Green Day