Joe and I were married eight years ago today. It seems like just yesterday and at the same time I can't remember a time when I wasn't with Joe.
I love being his wife. We dated for 7 years before we got married and yet still had a bit of a whirlwind romance. We met in August, moved in together in September and in October were in a car on our way to elope (we got matching tattoos instead.) That Thanksgiving I told my mom I wanted to marry him. I was 18. She told me that we both had a lot of growing up to do and we needed to make sure we grew up together. So over the next few years we lived together, apart, then next to each other. We broke up for a month, Joe got a job and moved to Columbia, South Carolina and then a year later moved to Charlotte. Just when we were talking about keeping separate places, his apartment burned down and Joe, his cat and a pair of shoes moved into my place. One day he surprised me and proposed in the most perfect for me, story book way. Two years later, on a deck overlooking Hart Bay in the US Virgin Islands, with a rainbow over our heads and 27 of our closest family and friends surrounding us, we got married.
It hasn't always been easy and we have gone through our share of grumpiness, arguments, bad days and therapy sessions. But we also have talked until the sun comes up, had tickle fights (I always lose) and have giggled until we snorted. I firmly believe that all of that makes us a stronger couple. I do know that we have been lucky and while I don't know what the future holds, I do know I will fight like hell for our marriage because it means the world to me.
So to Joe on our 8th Wedding Anniversary; I love you and am so very glad to be married to you. Thank you for always meeting me at the door and kissing me hello when I get home. Thank you for standing in the back of the shower. Thanks for always cooking and eating all the moldy food. Thank you for your honesty, your tenderness, your efforts in making our marriage stronger. Thank you for making me laugh when all I want to do is cry, for taking my headaches away, for hooking up TiVo even though it was a pain, for sharing your awesome rhyming ability and for always pumping the gas. Thank you for loving me even when I am unlovable. I think you are the smartest, most talented, wonderful, funny man with the cutest nose I have ever known and I am glad we have grown up together. Thank you for being my best friend. Curling up in bed with you and Pablo is the best part of any day for me too.
I love you.
Pictures above are: New York City to see The Gates, February 2005, Charleston for my 30th birthday and our wedding, November 9, 2001.
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