I first proposed to Shannon over 14 years ago. I think it was over the phone. Romantic, I know, but probably appropriate given that we weren't dating at the time. I don't remember quite how the conversation ran its course, but the important bit is that when Shannon expressed a concern that she'd never get married, I saw my opportunity and proposed. As I was still a teenager, I did the smart thing and gave myself a good long time frame, and suggested a wedding date of May 5th, 2015. Hey, what do you know, that's today!
As part of our backup marriage plan, we picked a date that would have put us firmly into the "menace to society" category (note: that quote is apocryphal) while still not quite "old". We would still be young enough to pop out a few kids (note: this is not an announcement of any kind!). And, as part of a perk of having been single for that long, we should have saved up some money which means we could afford to get hitched in the Tahiti Temple. Why Tahiti? Um . . . it's a tropical island. Sounds pretty fantastic to me.
In the end we decided we couldn't wait that long and moved the wedding up by 11 years, but we still figured we should honor that commitment to go to Tahiti in 2015. Some people would have a big event for their 10th anniversary, but we would hold off for a big 11th.
We're not going to Tahiti this year. Probably not any time in the next 11 years either. Maybe for our 33rd anniversary? The years have brought us through a few jobs, a few states, a few houses, and a few financial crises. But I would rather be sitting on a 9 year old couch watching 'Friends' on Netflix with Shannon, than be in Tahiti with anyone else. (There are good odds that this is what we'll be doing tonight.)
I don't have any better idea what the next 11 years will bring than I had for how the last 11 years have gone. The 11 year plan called for me to be lounging on the beach this week, after all. But while life for the last 11 years has not always been ideal, I can truthfully say that my marriage has almost always been ideal. I can't always figure out why it works so well, but it does. I have a fabulous marriage, and as I figure it, most of that credit goes to Shannon, because as far as I can tell, I haven't been doing anything all that impressive to make life so good.
Shannon is fabulous. Shannon feeds me (which would barely happen if I were left on my own) and yet still understands that my Blockburger genes also dictate that sometimes you can have cereal for dinner. Shannon has complained a remarkably small number of times about the pile of clothes that has been on the floor on my side of the bed for about 11 years now. Furthermore, she keeps making the bed even with 11 years of evidence that I'm not going to help. Shannon is a fabulous mother - when I'm left to put the girls to bed the screaming usually starts from one of the three of us within 20 minutes of Shannon walking out the door. Shannon has spent so much time around herself for the last few decades that she doesn't always realize how fabulous she is, and I fall into that trap too, sometimes. It's not any big thing about her, but it's a million tiny little things, that when you add them all up, . . . . well let's just say she's fabulous, because this program isn't nearly long enough to list them all.
So, at the conclusion of the best 11 years of marriage I could imagine, I'm excited to start on the next 11, and there's no tropical island that I'd trade that for.
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