Wow! It's been 12 years already?

I had this huge fight with my parents twelve years ago yesterday. It was my dad's birthday, and Mike and I were at his place, and somehow (I honestly don't remember how), my dad figured out that we were thinking about running down to the courthouse to just get married and be done with all my anxieties about it. You see...we'd been coping with a lot of wedding plans on a shoe-string budget, and my mom, understanding just how much needed to be done by our set date in February, had been pushing for decisions and talking a LOT about it all.

Well, Daddy figured out what we were kicking around, and he started to make a huge deal of it. Talked about flying us all to Vegas, the whole nine yards. When we tried to explain that the purpose of eloping quietly was just...a way to relieve the tension, make the wedding something we wanted to look forward to...neither of them would understand. My mom even said if we did it, and she wasn't part of it, then she would refuse to be part of the wedding. To me, they were making it all about them, when it was supposed to be about us.

Mike understood. He always does. He knew it wasn't that I didn't want the wedding. I just wanted something to be just for us. We have this thing called the 'secret delight' where there's one little secret that we use to get us through the day. Something that - when everything else is pulling you in a million different directions - we can hold onto that belongs just to us. Like...before work, even sometimes now, he 'puts me in his back pocket' so I won't miss him so much. It's a silly little thing, but it defines us.

So, twelve years ago today, we woke up, wished Daddy a happy birthday one more time, and quietly set about finding birth certificates. We picked up one friend who could keep her mouth shut and serve as a witness, and then we went to the county courthouse. He bought me a single red rose and a bottle of cheap champagne, and I married my best friend.

The ultimate secret delight. :)

Happy Anniversary, Mikey. I love you forever.