As my husband & I near what I deem to be our 'real' anniversary, not the wedding anniversary that simply made us "legit" in the eyes of some, I cannot help but nostalgically indulge in those early memories. In 1999, my husband & I met at a particular place of employment, which shall remain nameless due to the inevitable embarrassment of some & the merciless mocking by most.
After remaining close friends for two years, my husband began his first year of university while I, a few years younger, had to battle the stereotypical monotony of our small town high school. Brontë, Dickens, Tolstoy & Hemingway alleviated the doldrums of small town life.
For our first date in Toronto, I think Zeus had us in his sights. Immediately, we faced comical scenarios that reached Marx Brothers levels: from a painful collision with several bicyclists to trying to outrun an unwelcome chaperon, a screaming, barely-clad man (Two words: loin cloth) waving a staked pineapple & shouting out biblical prophecies.
Thankfully, he relinquished the pineapple he had been relentlessly poking us with by chucking it at a passing car. He then quickly rode away on his bicycle (I'm assuming to obtain more pineapples & wooden stakes). On a side note, we did encounter this man several more times in the following years, always with a staked pineapple & once, in the grocery store, we found him stocking a cart with his coveted fruit.
But, I think it's how the date ended that fully captures 'us' in a sense. The date we had anticipated for years culminated in a simultaneous trip -somehow we had managed to hook feet & trip each other. Nothing like a clumsily-executed face plant on one of the busiest intersections of Toronto, Yonge & Bloor, to really commemorate a date.
We still bear the scars to prove it (ever wondered why my husband has a goatee?).
Although our date may have resembled a scene from Animal Crackers, I can honestly say, that night I fell head over heels for my husband.
Now, it's almost been eleven years since that night. We've lived in different cities, at times different countries & attended different schools & later, different universities. We've travelled the world together & built a "house of rented home".
We have supported each other through high school, through undergraduate, graduate & post-graduate years. In our tenth year of dating, we celebrated our relationship with our lovely friends & family.
The best is yet to come.
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