Do You Know What Today Is?

It's our anniversary. I've been playing the song by Tony! Toni! Tone! in my head since yesterday afternoon. Though I've got to sling olive oils all day we're going out to celebrate the occasion at Nicky's Thai Kitchen. My friend and coworker, Siena, is coming over to man the fort while we dine. Olive will be in bed - ideally - so she won't have much to worry about.

Over the last week I've been flipping through this book I found at the Khoreys' called Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage. It was written by Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat, Pray, Love, which I've never read - not really my style. If they're making a film adaptation with Julia Roberts (no dissage, J. R.! I love My Best Friend's Wedding, Erin Brockovich, and Steel Magnolias), it's probably a little too chick-litty for me. But what I've been reading in this Committed book is an interesting take on other societies' approaches to marriage versus our own. Here in America we expect to be made boundlessly happy by our spouse and feel cheated if things don't measure up to our absurdly high expectations all the time. In some cultures, choosing a mate is not a matter of love or even feeling, but of practicality and perhaps being in the right place at the right time. Ya hear that, Tina Turner? Love's got nothing to do with it. But here the love aspect is paramount, and once the bloom is off the proverbial rose, that's when marriages start to tumble downhill fast. Having been married for a whopping two years, I've yet to experience that dreaded descent into the Marital Abyss, but then I am reminded of the man I married. His constant quest for knowledge, improvement, and curiosity (sometimes perplexing; my busy mind can't be bothered, my sleep not plagued by wondering how long a centipede lives) for the minutiae really prevents things from going dull in our house. Without a doubt, I am in love with him, but even more than that, I like him a great deal. When I think of all the many people I like, admire, and whose company I enjoy, Rob is at the very top of the list. It's pretty easy to be married to someone like that. I'm awfully lucky that this amazing man feels the same way about me.

Note the blue collared shirt in both pictures of Rob. He thinks he looks pretty nice in that blue-and-brown combo. Well, he's right.

Yep, still pretty happy together after all this time. I'm hoping pictures we take in twenty years will reflect the same sort of contentment.