62159

some_things


- flowers i bought for amy.


- medal won for finishing the providence half-marathon.


- trip to rockingham, nh to talk with a supporting church about sojourn's work in boston (and now providence).

52759 Day 340

old_married_couple

today may have been the most traditional married day of our lives.  amy and i rose fairly early, for a saturday, and drove over to south boston to eat sticky buns at flour (i actually woke up half an hour before the alarm and couldn't fall back to sleep because i was so excited). while we were there we also drank coffee, read the globe, and complained about the state of the world =)

back home, amy spent the rest of the morning gardening while i hung pictures and screwed in the braces for a set of curtains.

the early afternoon involved reading, a shower, then watching the red sox (for me) while flipping over the us nationals (swimming) in california (for amy). 

then we made dinner and played cribbage on the back porch.

we are officially an old married couple! 

46959 Day 279

2_years


a little avett brothers goodness in honor of our anniversary, which is actually tomorrow.  think this pretty much sums it up =)

She keeps it simple
And I am thankful for her kind of lovin'
'Cause it's simple

No longer do we wonder if we're together
We're way past that
And I've already asked her
So in January we're gettin' married

She's talkin' to me with her voice
Down so low I barely hear her
But I know what she's sayin'
I understand because my heart and hers are the same
And in January we're gettin' married

And I was sick with heartache
And she was sick like Audrey Hepburn when I met her
But we would both surrender
True love is not the kind of thing you should turn down
Don't ever turn it down

I hope that I don't sound to insane when I say
There is darkness all around us
I don't feel weak but I do need sometimes for her to protect me
And reconnect me to the beauty that I'm missin'
And in January we're gettin' married

No longer does it matter what circumstances we were born in
She knows which birds are singin'
And the names of the trees where they're performin' in the mornin
And in January we're gettin' married
Come January let's get married

16859 happy_valentine's_day

there are infinite ways that we can show love.  for some reason, our culture has chosen february 14th as an arbitrary date for celebrating love.  we also have chosen the color red, hallmark cards, boxes of candy, flowers, and teddy bears as the ultimate symbols for demonstrating our love.

there's nothing wrong with any of this, mind you (except, perhaps, for the ungodly amount of money spent on those items).  but this is not an anti-valentine's day post, just an alternative valentine's day story.

in fact, amy and i had a plan in place for our first valentine's day as a married couple (and the first where we've both been in the same geographic location).  we were going to go out for a night on the town: dinner, a brett dennen concert, etc.  we were both looking forward to it quite a bit.

on tuesday morning i woke up and immediately knew i was coming down with something.  turns out it was the worst flu i've had in a long, long time.  i seriously haven't been this sick in years.  i get migraines which are the worst, and i can get bad coughs at times which are also no fun, but this illness might take the cake.  it involved vomiting, head aches, body aches, chills, cold sweats, a fever, and tremendous amount of "not-right-looking" mucus in my head.  it was really bad.  i missed all work and community group on wednesday...went to bird street on thursday, and starbucks and bird on friday (probably not a good idea).  by the time i rolled up to our home on friday night, after working 10+ hours and feeling awful, i just wanted to pass out on the couch and not do anything until monday.

however, i found amy throwing up in the bathroom.  to make an already long and gruesome story shorter (and less gruesome) it turns out amy did not get my flu but has a hardcore ear infection.  (the doctor looked into her ear and immediately exclaimed: "wow, that's a bad one").  

our valentine's day has not been filled with teddy bears and little red heart shaped candies, but instead has had enough mucus and vomit and infections and drugs to last the rest of the year (not exactly hallmark card material).

when you get married you exchange vows, one of which is to love each other "in sickness and in health."  so somehow, i feel like our valentine's day experience is more grounded in reality than the card version.  and i kind of like that.  and in a weird way i have no doubt this is making us fall more in love with each other...and that is worth way more than a box of chocolates.