I may not be the most clued in guy in the world, but I’m not the most clueless either, and I was well aware that SOMETHING WAS MISSING, and I knew of no other way to rectify the situation short of bringing it up directly, and so I said, “Soooo, honey… I think we need to pick a day for our anniversary.”   Because how else was I supposed to be able to tell people how long we had been together, if I had no frame of reference?

There was a moment of silence from her end of the line, and then, “That’s a good question!  I’m not sure.”

“I was thinking,” I said, which wasn’t true at all, because I’m fairly sure I came up with this on the spot, “that the 25th would be a good date, because you first came to Portland on the weekend of May 25th, and then you were here again in June on the 25th, and you’ll be here next week, which includes July 25th…and I’ll take you out someplace nice, and it will be our three month anniversary.”  Also the 25th was a good round number that I was unlikely to forget, but I didn’t bring that up.

“Hmm,” she said, “you know, we met just a month before that on April 25th in Santa Fe.”

“That’s true.”

“And kissed for the first time.”

“Also true.”

“So how about April 25th?” she proposed.  ”Then we can have our four month anniversary on my next visit to Portland.”

“Wait.  You want to backdate our anniversary?”  I had to admit I was intrigued by the idea.  You can’t fight fate, not really, and our lives had definitely changed course that night in New Mexico.  Why not?  ”Okay, I’m in.  April 25th it is.”

That first year was an odd one: dating a girl I’d met online who lived in another state is probably the weirdest thing I’ve done in a life filled with weird.  Then one day I flew down to California, and we collected all Sarah’s things and drove her up here to Oregon, and then not too long after that I decided that quitting my job, while probably not the best idea in the Great Depression Of Our Times, was about the only option I had.  And then we moved in together.  Stressful much?  You bet.  But we made it through, a little rougher, a little wiser, and we’re doing fine.

The anniversary of our first year together came and went rather quietly, falling as it did on the heels of the last TequilaCon, and we didn’t say a word because the show must go on, people.  We spent it in Victoria, with friends, taking in a lucky day of Pacific Northwest sunshine in that beautiful city.

I’d be lying if I said we hadn’t had plenty of challenges this second year.  But we’re stronger for that, we survived life coming at us with both barrels blazing by supporting each other through thick and thin.  If it was just me going through all that I know I would have given up, but neither of us gave up on each other, and now we know that if we made it through the lowest parts of this last year we can make it through anything.

She's a keeper

Happy anniversary, baby.  Here’s to the next two years.  And the next two after that.  And then after that probably another…aw, heck, you get the idea.

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