One lazy day in July 1987, I crashed my bike on a gravel alleyway in Ellensburg, embedding some blood and rocks  in my knee and hand.  This was a convenient excuse to ask my cute new neighbor for some first aid.  As they say, one thing led to another – he was my first and last boyfriend. Today marks our 19th anniversary of mostly wedded bliss.

We were fairly young when we got married -24 and 25.  We’d planned a trip to Hawaii using my bosses’ c0ndo, and I pretty much convinced The Geek we should just get married and the trip would be our honeymoon.  Yep, no big proposal and to this day I wonder if he ever would have- it was probably just easier to go along with it, still our general operating procedure.  Two kids, a bar and a dog later, here we are.

To be sure, we’ve weathered some ups and downs, including one pretty big down where I wondered if we’d come out the other side, that maybe this was it, the end.  What if I’d chosen the wrong fork in the road? Or maybe he should have ended up with someone else.  We’re still on THIS road however; the ride isn’t over.  It’s bumpy at times, high-flying at others.  We do the best we can with what we’ve got, with what we’ve made.  We’ve made two pretty great kids, and made a second family with some of the best people in the world at the Roanoke.  So lucky to still be surrounded with stand-up people from E-burg, Federal and Green Lake.

So thanks to The Geek for living with my cookbook and fabric collections, putting up with my anal planning of camping trips, building my garden beds and fireplace mantle, installing baseboards while I research new kitchen floors, walking the dog and picking up 95% of his poo, disposing of all spiders post-haste, and teaching the kids that some fathers do say “I’m sorry” and “I love you”.

Nineteen years is a long-ass time.  To do anything, let alone live with one person.  It helps when you marry your best friend.  I didn’t get you a present.  I guess you could say this is it.  Love you.

August 1987