2 Years

It's our anniversary this weekend. We planned on having a little vacation in Lugano... made reservations at a great mountaintop restaurant, wanted to rent a boat, go to museums, maybe even a guided tour of the city. Apparently Lugano had other plans. It's Labor Day here, but because we're so unplugged (we don't watch the local news or read the paper), we had no idea. We set out this morning with big plans, and instead EVERYTHING was closed. Even the grocery stores! The whole city was shut down. On top of everything, the weather wasn't great, so a boat was out of the question. We would have still headed to the restaurant, but our neighbor's car we were supposed to use was in Milan. Literally everything we had planned fell through. When we first found out we were moving here, I actually pictured our anniversary and thought how great it would be to spend it in Europe. We had a good laugh about that as we ate Thai take away (one of the only places open) and looked out onto empty streets.

We decided to go home and just relax - watch a movie. I got to choose (the last time we watched something it was science fiction - not my favorite). I settled on "This Emotional Life" which was a documentary about family, friends and "lovers" (I hate that word, but it's the one they used), and how they affect your happiness. To some of you that might sound excruciating, but to me it sounded VERY interesting. Ryan seemed unsure, but went with it. It turned out to be totally applicable, especially on this anniversary weekend. The last portion was on relationships. According to these statistics, after 5 years of marriage only 10% of people say they are as happy as when they were first married. I sort of winced when I heard that. It made me sad - I don't want it to be like that. Then I noticed Ryan rubbing my arm - I guess he was thinking the same thing. At one point, psychologists were testing some hormone levels of couples before and after a little obstacle course. It turned out they were much happier after only doing 5 minutes of these childish type games. I told Ryan that maybe we should set up an obstacle course in our living room. He said that I set one up every week when I leave my stuff everywhere. He got me good - I laughed hard at that one.

We decided that since our charming mountaintop reservations had to be cancelled, we should come up with something else, which turned out to be bowling with some friends. Totally comparable to a romantic dinner. There are two girls in my class that I've wanted to get to know better, and they (along with one of their boyfriends) were free tonight. So, off we went. It turns out they weren't really the bowling type. Literally gutter balls almost every time it was their turn, which isn't fun. I'm strangely good at bowling, and didn't adjust my effort to the current situation one bit. All I wanted to do was beat Ryan, which I did. And in the meantime, racked up a score that was 4 times that of the friends we invited.

I unfortunately have a lot of homework to do, which has to be done tomorrow, so that will round out our one of a kind European anniversary weekend. I was dreading it, thinking it would intrude on our pre-planned fun. Now I'm sort of indifferent... everything else that failed so far has brought something funny in it's place.

I may regret being publicly sappy in the morning, but it's late here, Ryan's sleeping next to me on the couch, and I'm feeling sentimental. We may be naive to think this will last, and two years is nothing in the grand scheme of things, but we are happy. Probably anyone would be happy with Ryan, because he's sort of a wonder boy, but I'm the lucky one that got this life. And I'm very grateful. As well I should be... we all know who the better half is. How I got here I will still never understand.

Maybe everyone thinks this about their wedding, but ours was the best! It was a happy, happy day. I'm convinced it would have been just as great another way (especially at Charlie and Janis's house) but our parents gave us a party! A huge, fancy, beautiful party. And we loved every minute of it.


Sweet enough for you? How about one more just to drive it home. This one's not so sweet, a little disturbing actually, but still somehow captures the moment.



So, that was two years ago. We're certainly not anywhere close to where I would have pictured us... sort of makes me wonder about what's next. I would like 2012 to include a move home and a dog. But I'll just let nature take it's course.