Happy Anniversary!

Two years ago today I walked down the aisle to marry this guy (don't be embarrassed, Love). When people congratulate us and ask how it feels I have to say: "Getting married was one of the most fun things I've ever done in my life." Maybe I'm just naive but I don't understand why some people describe being married as feeling tied down, as if their spouse is a weight on their life. I feel the opposite and I know there are other people out there who feel the same way too -- that being married (at least to my husband) is one of the most liberating and freeing feelings I've ever felt. Before I met him I already thought the sky was the limit for my future and I was excited about the possibilities, but after dating and marrying him, those exciting possibilities were infinitely magnified.

I had met him when I was a freshman in high school, and at the time thought he was cute but that was it (my best girl friend, who introduced us, had a huge thing for him). We were friends for a year or two back then but drifted apart with our different friends and interests. Occasionally during college, we'd run into each other around our hometown when we'd be back visiting family for the holidays, but the conversation didn't last more than a formal "hello" and "how's it going." Nearly a decade went by with no real contact, and we lived out our lives with other friends and other relationships in other locations -- he went down to school in San Diego; I went to Santa Barbara, then on to Boston.

But in April of 2006, four months after I had moved back to the Bay Area, I got an email from him asking how I was. He had found me online and saw that I was doing what I said I'd wanted do back in high school. I replied to him, we exchanged numbers, starting talking on the phone for hours every night, and two months later when he moved back to the area after his graduation, I was smitten. That summer we went to concerts, movies, took long walks, had long talks and shared pie in late-night diners. It was a fabulous time. Then he proposed to me that November, right before Thanksgiving. I was shocked but happy about the proposal. I knew I wanted to marry him, but never told him because I wasn't sure if he wanted the same thing. Apparently he did. We planned a wedding in Italy for that following July and here I am today, living with my best friend, confidante and partner-in-crime.

It's been a great two years, filled with some adventures, some arguments (we had a yelling match the other night about what Gustave Flaubert was "trying to say" in a passage of Madame Bovary) and lots of laughter. That's the most important thing with us: that we can always laugh at ourselves and each other (Madame Bovary? Seriously??). I hope I can have 50 years more.

Then:

One-Year Anniversary (2008):

Now:

Wonder what we'll look like in another decade or two!