just another day
Today is J and my nine year anniversary. This year, this day - the day we publicly committed to drink deeply of life - seems to have more meaning than previous years. This year, I want to renew those promises to and with Z. Being away from J, visiting family, seeing photos from our wedding displayed around mom's home (our photos are tucked away in an album on shelves in closets...I am hanging some up as soon as we get home!) bring back so many memories - the people who attended, the events of the day...and the many wonderful moments that led up to that day....
I had moved to Chicago from Idaho Falls in June 1990 and started at Elmhurst College in August. The first semester was rough - I didn't know anyone other than my dad and was too wrapped up missing high school friends to meet new ones. I vowed to move back to Idaho as soon as I could. In January, I took a one-month class called "The Literary Scene of Chicago" that brought me into the place I was living and peaked my curiosity about the people. The big city meant "culture" - there wasn't much of that where I was from. ;) More significantly, I met BG. My crush on him was immediate, but I was too shy to do anything about it.
One day in the Union, one of BG's friends walked up to me, shook my hand, and said, "I just wanted to say hello!" This same friend invited me to their first show (Markus Harbold at Snooky Ookums (sp?)) and then got me into the gig - I was under 21 but he said, "This is my girlfriend" and the doorman let me in. At the beginning of the show, my eyes were on BG...but by the end of the set, this friend, J, had all of my attention. We talked after the show, his hand on my knee, then went with a crowd of folks to another bar to dance - where I met several of the people who stood with us on the day we married.
It wasn't until 1995 that we decided to marry - eating french fries at Wendy's. I was moving to Madison for graduate school and it seemed we had two choices: travel separate paths or find one that would diverge for a couple years while I was in school then converge after I graduated. Thankfully, we chose the latter.
The night before our wedding - rehearsing the ceremony in our suite at the Congress Hotel - is really when we married each other. Alone and connected. We danced slowly, closely, lovingly.
Happy Anniversary, J. I love you.
I had moved to Chicago from Idaho Falls in June 1990 and started at Elmhurst College in August. The first semester was rough - I didn't know anyone other than my dad and was too wrapped up missing high school friends to meet new ones. I vowed to move back to Idaho as soon as I could. In January, I took a one-month class called "The Literary Scene of Chicago" that brought me into the place I was living and peaked my curiosity about the people. The big city meant "culture" - there wasn't much of that where I was from. ;) More significantly, I met BG. My crush on him was immediate, but I was too shy to do anything about it.
One day in the Union, one of BG's friends walked up to me, shook my hand, and said, "I just wanted to say hello!" This same friend invited me to their first show (Markus Harbold at Snooky Ookums (sp?)) and then got me into the gig - I was under 21 but he said, "This is my girlfriend" and the doorman let me in. At the beginning of the show, my eyes were on BG...but by the end of the set, this friend, J, had all of my attention. We talked after the show, his hand on my knee, then went with a crowd of folks to another bar to dance - where I met several of the people who stood with us on the day we married.
It wasn't until 1995 that we decided to marry - eating french fries at Wendy's. I was moving to Madison for graduate school and it seemed we had two choices: travel separate paths or find one that would diverge for a couple years while I was in school then converge after I graduated. Thankfully, we chose the latter.
The night before our wedding - rehearsing the ceremony in our suite at the Congress Hotel - is really when we married each other. Alone and connected. We danced slowly, closely, lovingly.
Happy Anniversary, J. I love you.
posted by sp1ral at 6:59 AM
1 Comments:
Happy anniversary!
Beautiful words. Marvellous story.
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