The Tabard Revisited

Ambrose Bierce once said that love is a temporary insanity curable by marriage. This is true for many people, but Ambrose has failed to be proven right in our case - love still lurks in every corner.

To celebrate a year of not being "cured", Erik planned a majestic anniversary evening. There was much thoughtfulness and romance in every detail of our purposefully DC-centric anniversary. First, he met me in a subway station (looking hot in his suit) with a bouquet of my very favorite flowers (ranunculus), the ones that made up my bridal bouquet. Then we shuttled to the Watergate Hotel for dinner, and waiting for us at our table was ANOTHER vase of flowers - tulips this time (the flowers that made up the other bouquets - northing's lost on him). We enjoyed drinks and a very nice dinner before heading across the street to the Kennedy Center to see a brilliant quartet on the Terrace Stage. And then to his surprise, we hopped in a cab to finish off our night at the Tabard Inn where we got married. After cozying-up on a couch in one of their many sitting rooms, and after more drinks and a ridiculously decadent dessert, we walked home in the rain and continued our anniversary fun into the wee hours of this morning (why didn't I call in sick today...?).

We NEVER do this kind of thing - dressing up for the theatre and dinner and drinks (all at different places), and while we would have been just as happy to get burgers in some dive and to listen to a good juke box, it was fun to see a different side of DC that we rarely experience. As I will never forget how fun it was to have a DC wedding, I will also never forget our unbelievably DC-specific first anniversary.

We talked over dinner about what our 2nd anniversary might be like. Given that we'll be in Austin, he said he'd like to be on a boat on Lake Travis, which I amended to being a fun dinner party on a pontoon boat (with kids??). The options are endless as to what we can do, but it will certainly be another "first" in many ways: the first anniversary with kids, the first anniversary as home-owners (hopefully) and the first anniversary in Austin.

There are probably many "cures" (as Abrose puts it) that kill the newness of any love, but marriage has turned out to be a little more exciting than either of us expected. Last night during our anniversary dinner, we tried to pinpoint our favorite part of being married (because really, at the end of the day, it's not all that different than it was before). It's kind of too hard to explain it in writing, but essentially we agreed that being married rocks, and that there are some things that are different, but definitely for the better. For instance, more recognition from our families is a big one - marriage just seems to have made us more legit in people's eyes...who knew that would be so big?

One thing that seems to only grow with every day is the sincere romance that we share. We have a lot of romance in our marriage, and it never seems to tone down. People tease us about it being a phase, but it hasn't let up in all the years we've been together (like 8 years or something). We are still just as sappy, passionate and twitter-painted as we were back in college. Marriage didn't "cure" us of this, but I'm guessing the skeptics would say that a baby would...

Something that I think contributes to our being so inlove is the respect that we have for one another. It makes for a marriage that is balanced with intense passion, but also with general interest in each other. Nietzsche said it best when he said, "It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages". I hope we will always be good friends, which is where we started.

Thank you, Erik, for an amazing anniversary, and for an amazing "first" year.