Monday, April 1, 2013

Still Just a Coupla Fools


Today – April Fool’s Day – marks the 5th anniversary of my first date with Vince.

Yeah, I know. It was a peculiar day to choose for our first date. Maybe the thought crossed our minds that if it didn’t work out, we’d have funny stories to tell about how we went out on this bad date on April Fool’s Day.

That’s the story we tell, anyway. Actually, since we’d met “online,” and we’d spent so many weeks emailing, IM-ing and talking to each other on the phone, we didn’t want to delay our first real get-together – even if it meant that ever after we’d have to call ourselves a couple of fools.

Oh, but the story I like to tell? That it took Vince so many tries before I finally agreed to go out on a date with him, he didn’t want to let another day slip away before we met in person so he stuck with April Fool’s Day. Either that, or he didn’t want to give me a chance to back out of it.

Obviously, no one backed out. And it has been five wonderful years. But it seems like we met just yesterday. I truly can’t fathom that we’ve been together this long, which begs the inevitable question, Where has the time gone?
When I examine where we were five years ago and where we are now, it seems that a significant amount of time would have to have passed because a lot has changed. In the past five years, we’ve gotten engaged and then married. We’ve moved, we've changed jobs (well, one of us has, anyway). We’ve taken vacations and have attended weddings together. We’ve celebrated our birthdays and anniversaries as well as friend and family birthdays and anniversaries. We’ve taken about a zillion pictures of trips and get-togethers and parties and holidays and “just-because” photos that prove that five years has passed.

We’re both driving different cars than we were five years ago. And we’ve experienced the untimely passing of our washer and dryer.

Oh, and we’ve experienced job loss and the loss of a beloved pet. But we gained two new pets who have taken up residence in our hearts. We’ve had to visit loved ones in the hospital and we’ve had to attend funerals. But we’ve also visited the hospital to meet new babies.

These are all the things that make up a life. One thing builds upon another and one day passes into the next and – suddenly – five years have gone by.

If we’re lucky, those things that build a life turn out to be more happy than sad. More good than bad. And, for the most part, Vince and I have been truly blessed with a good life together.

So if we're a couple of April Fools, then we're happy ones. Happy Anniversary, my love. I'm looking forward to the next five, too.

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