love potion #9

Love seems the swiftest, but it is the slowest of all growths. No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century.
~ Mark Twain

flowers from James

Happy Anniversary to us!

It seems awfully surreal to think that we've been married for nine years. How bizarre. Including the three-month stopover at Mom & Dad's, we've moved five times, we've each finished a degree, and I've "travaille'd" (worked) for eight different employers in twelve separate capacities.

We've had our times of dormancy (like everyone else, I imagine), but I'd like to think we've grown as an ensemble as well as individually. I used to sit at the table with James and ask myself, "Who is this stranger across from me?" I catch myself thinking that less and less. James remarked jokingly that the warranty runs out next year, and he may have to return me to my parents, to which I replied that my dad would certainly have something to say to that!

According to the "experts," there are traditionally prescribed wedding anniversary gifts to mark the milestones. For number 9 they suggest gifts of pottery, willow, or leather. Nuh-unh. It ain't happening. Perhaps it's time to postulate a "postmodern gifts" list: CDs, DVDs, cellphones, laptops, anyone?

We decided to walk over to Guava's Shawarma for a take-out celebration supper. I had resisted the whole shawarma scene for quite some time (huge slabs of meat on a spit? no thanks), until one day a few months ago when I summoned my bravado and was pleasantly surprised to learn that the vegetarian wraps are sooooo good, as are the potatoes. Subsequently, I've always ordered the small vegetarian wrap, with garlic, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, exactly two slices of hot peppers, grilled cauliflower, and sesame sauce.

A word of advice, however: it is not good for a man to eat alone--or a woman, for that matter. The garlic sauce/spread is très, très potent. In fact, one could conceive of it as an aroma or savour of death as opposed to a fragrance of life. To eat or not to eat, that is the question, but whichever one chooses, so should the other, thereby keeping the marriage breath undefiled (or equitably defiled).