3rd time is a charm?
why do we put so much stock in "important dates?" birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, they're really just days, right? then why do we insist on attaching meaning to them? are we just setting ourselves up for disappointment?
when michael and i got married, we were too busy and too broke to go on a honeymoon. there's no way i could have fit a wedding, a college graduation, a move to DC, AND a honeymoon into a week*. three of those were enough, thank you.
for our one-year anniversary, we took a 10-day trip to costa rica. thanks to my airline miles and supreme backpacking skills honed in the hostels of europe**, we were able to do the entire trip for a little over $1000 (that's right. i'm totally bragging about this). we spent the first half hiking in the cloud forest and the second half on the beach, in a little bungalow about 40 feet from the water's edge (pictures avail at flickr). on the day of our anniversary, we decided to kayak out to an island, and, barring one layer of sunscreen and our measly swimsuits, we were naked to the sun. we paid for it by not being able to move for the remainder of the trip and comparing the size of skin sheets peeling off in the weeks to come.
anniversary #1 = SUCKED***.
fastforward a year. imagine this - we're broke again****. and we're not in costa rica. this is shaping up to be a real winner of an anniversary already, isn't it? we'd already decided not to do anything special - we went to nyc a few weeks ago and we were "counting" that as our anniversary trip*****. michael was working on this massive project for school, one that required the help of his research partners (the german and the social guy). upon my insistence, they decided to have a little "coding party" at our apartment on our anniversary. you know, so they could geek out and get some work done. cool by me, i can dig it. they're supposed to show up at 2:00. nothing. 2:30, social guy calls "i'm running a little late." 3:45, social guy shows up, still no word from the german. i decide to go for a run, my "usual" saturday 6-miler. get about 4 miles into it and i feel like i'm about to die. not from running, just hot and cold and tired and achy. get home, shower, get dressed again (the german has made his unexplained but expected fashionably late appearance), still feel like i'm about to die. running 100.0 fever. perfect. 7:00, the german is hungry. 7:30 the four of us are celebrating our second anniversary at a small italian restaurant nearby. perfect. social guy makes a sweet toast and follows it up by lamenting how difficult it is to keep the excitement in a relationship after "that long******." 9:30, back at the apartment. 9:35 THEY KEEP CODING. WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE? 10:00, my dad calls, wishing us a happy anniversary. i complain loudly that we're not alone. and that i'm running a fever. 11:30, after shooting many, many evil eyes******* and catching up on ALL of my old new yorkers, they leave. finally.
anniversary #2 = SUCKED.
*and rebeading my wedding dress and finishing a final, don't forget those either.
** that's technically not true. i only stayed in a hostel once, when i was on a weekend trip by myself to ravenna.
*** again, not completely true. we WERE in costa rica, and there was plenty of beer.
**** we're technically not broke. i sorta messed up something on our taxes that has placed us in a temporarily inconvenient position.
***** much in the same way michael's valentine's day ipod will also be his birthday ipod and his christmas ipod
****** i would comment here, but i'm going to take the unusual route of censoring my response to save my father an early heart attack.
******* a look michael is very familiar with. something like this:
when michael and i got married, we were too busy and too broke to go on a honeymoon. there's no way i could have fit a wedding, a college graduation, a move to DC, AND a honeymoon into a week*. three of those were enough, thank you.
for our one-year anniversary, we took a 10-day trip to costa rica. thanks to my airline miles and supreme backpacking skills honed in the hostels of europe**, we were able to do the entire trip for a little over $1000 (that's right. i'm totally bragging about this). we spent the first half hiking in the cloud forest and the second half on the beach, in a little bungalow about 40 feet from the water's edge (pictures avail at flickr). on the day of our anniversary, we decided to kayak out to an island, and, barring one layer of sunscreen and our measly swimsuits, we were naked to the sun. we paid for it by not being able to move for the remainder of the trip and comparing the size of skin sheets peeling off in the weeks to come.
anniversary #1 = SUCKED***.
fastforward a year. imagine this - we're broke again****. and we're not in costa rica. this is shaping up to be a real winner of an anniversary already, isn't it? we'd already decided not to do anything special - we went to nyc a few weeks ago and we were "counting" that as our anniversary trip*****. michael was working on this massive project for school, one that required the help of his research partners (the german and the social guy). upon my insistence, they decided to have a little "coding party" at our apartment on our anniversary. you know, so they could geek out and get some work done. cool by me, i can dig it. they're supposed to show up at 2:00. nothing. 2:30, social guy calls "i'm running a little late." 3:45, social guy shows up, still no word from the german. i decide to go for a run, my "usual" saturday 6-miler. get about 4 miles into it and i feel like i'm about to die. not from running, just hot and cold and tired and achy. get home, shower, get dressed again (the german has made his unexplained but expected fashionably late appearance), still feel like i'm about to die. running 100.0 fever. perfect. 7:00, the german is hungry. 7:30 the four of us are celebrating our second anniversary at a small italian restaurant nearby. perfect. social guy makes a sweet toast and follows it up by lamenting how difficult it is to keep the excitement in a relationship after "that long******." 9:30, back at the apartment. 9:35 THEY KEEP CODING. WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE? 10:00, my dad calls, wishing us a happy anniversary. i complain loudly that we're not alone. and that i'm running a fever. 11:30, after shooting many, many evil eyes******* and catching up on ALL of my old new yorkers, they leave. finally.
anniversary #2 = SUCKED.
*and rebeading my wedding dress and finishing a final, don't forget those either.
** that's technically not true. i only stayed in a hostel once, when i was on a weekend trip by myself to ravenna.
*** again, not completely true. we WERE in costa rica, and there was plenty of beer.
**** we're technically not broke. i sorta messed up something on our taxes that has placed us in a temporarily inconvenient position.
***** much in the same way michael's valentine's day ipod will also be his birthday ipod and his christmas ipod
****** i would comment here, but i'm going to take the unusual route of censoring my response to save my father an early heart attack.
******* a look michael is very familiar with. something like this:
posted by trinity at 9:28 PM
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