Anniversary Dinner

Tomorrow John and I celebrate 13 years of official state-sanctioned partnership. We're whooping it up tonight; fortuitously, the girls will be at a Girl Scouts sleepover.

We got married under a tree in our back yard, three days after he asked me for the second time to marry him. The first time, I said yes, but we didn't set a date, and as the date-setting time approached he got more and more nervous. Finally, he said, "Marry me tomorrow," and I said the county makes us wait three days. So he said, "Marry me in three days." So I did.

We both worked a half-day, and a flower cart on the bus mall did my flowers. We had to wait until Lou was born to afford decent rings, and made do on the event with $5 silver bands. We spent our wedding night at Edgefield (Thursday night special), and he went back to work the next day.

They said it wouldn't last, but we've been best friends from the day we met 15 years ago this November. I truly have never had a better friend than my John.