Let the big week begin… March 31st was the first big day: our 14th wedding anniversary. Of course I waited until the last minute to line things up, but I thought it worked out OK. Ivory was the traditional 14th wedding anniversary gift, however, I found out that ivory is illegal for the most part, since it comes from elephants’ tusks, so… changing gears slightly… if I can’t have the tusks, give me the whole elephant. Where can I get an elephant? What kind of elephant am I looking for? The search ended up taking my son and I to Chinatown after I picked him up from school; we scored a little green elephant. Since I had to go there, we picked up some food as well; it was delicious. Unfortunately, the flower acquisition in my one stop shopping in Chinatown let me down, but have no fear… on the way to pick my wife up from work (another part of her gift… haha), I scooped up 14 roses; I think I did OK… Had a card and a sentimental gift for her as well. F it… we’re good. Shit, we made it… isn’t that enough?
I’m not going to go into our whole history on this day; I’m not going to tell you how hard a marriage is either… we’re surviving. What I will do is tie this day into sports, of course. My wife and I have plenty of sports memories together. Let’s talk about a few.
Living in LA brought us some different opportunities that we couldn’t experience in Chicago. Bears game, Cubs game, Sox game, Bulls game, Blackhawks game… check, check, check. When we were in Cali, we added to that. Actually drove down to San Diego to watch the Bears play the Chargers in Week 1 of the NFL season way back when. Driving to the stadium was an absolute nightmare, stuck on the freeway for a long time trying to get off. Then, after getting off, looking for parking… forget about it; we had to walk about a mile. We ended up missing the start of the game, and the Bears lost, but none of that mattered. It was a great time together, sitting outside with some beers on a beautiful day, with my girlfriend… I don’t think we were engaged yet; not going to try to think that hard about the timing. Bottom line, it was a lot of fun. We did have a lot of fun over the years; I remember those times…
It’s not all fun and games though; most folks should understand that. There are ups and there are downs. Making it to another anniversary is an accomplishment that I am happy about. I said 14 years, but really, I’ve known her for 24 years… which at this point, is half of my life; that’s kind of wild. And yes, are there things I would have done differently here and there throughout the years… things I could have done better, mistakes I could have avoided… 100%. Yet, just like in the card I wrote her, at the end of the day, mix in the good bad and ugly, and boil it all down, I wouldn’t trade it all for anything… no regrets. Another March 31st in the books…
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