Anniversaries

Today - June 17 - marks 3 anniversaries for MC and me.

Twenty-five years ago today, we first met at a little Italian restaurant in No. Amherst. We liked each other well enough that, after dinner, we went to a swing dance. He had been planning to go anyway, but I had the option of bowing out if I wanted to. I didn't.

Two years later we decided to move in together. Actually, the story is a little more complicated, but that's the condensed version. In order to keep things simple and not have to remember too many different dates, we made it official on June 17.

Every year on June 17, we go out to dinner and renew our living together arrangement for one more year. One year at a time seems to take away most of the pressure.

Over the years as June 17 approached, we discussed getting married. Of course, we'd have to do it on June 17. Never mind that we had bought property together and built a house together, that our lives were inextricably intertwined, we still renewed the arrangement annually.

And then three years ago, on our 20th living-together anniversary, we did get married. To us, however, marriage was a formality, legalizing something we had been living for a very long time. After the brief but sweet ceremony, we went out to dinner and agreed to live together for one more year.

Tonight, we will go to dinner and renew for yet another year.

What can I say? It works.