100 months

Today is April 15th, 2009. Today is our '100-monthiversary'. Now, we really don't celebrate monthiversaries and haven't since we hit the 1-year mark in December 2001. There was no need to. We may have kept going and congratulating one another on hitting 15 months, 25 months, etc., but we never celebrated them after our first year, maybe even our second.

We got engaged the day after our '69 monthiversary'. (Go ahead and make an inappropriate joke here, everybody does!) During his proposal Graham asked if I'd like to spend another 69 months with him (you're still giggling, aren't you?) and I naturally responded yes, and I remember asking him when we'd hit 100 months. I remember he told me, and I promptly forgot. I'm no good with dates like that.

Because I promptly forgot, I didn't think about it. We were engaged in September 2006, April 2009 was light years off my radar at that point. I actually thought about it a few months ago and didn't do the math; I figured it had come and gone. A few weeks ago when I flipped the calendar to April, there it was! Smack dab in the middle was a photo of us with the caption, "100 Month Anniversary!" I turned to Graham and said, "We HAVE to do something!" We don't normally do 'date nights' or nights at the movies (we're closet old people) so I was really excited about the very prospect of having PLANS. I could already hear myself saying, "Oh I'm sorry, but we can't! We have PLANS!" I suggested going to a movie, but Graham in his infinate wisdom (hear that, dear?) suggested dinner out. Whoa. That is HUGE. He knew he had a Chicago Teacher's Union meeting tonight (his favorite activity) and because the meetings usually run long we decided to skip the movie and let someone else make us dinner. Sounds good to me!

At the last minute last night I thought about maybe doing something special to mark the event, but I decided against it. Like I said, we haven't celebrated a monthiversary in years, and even if it will take us another 8 years and 4 months to reach our 200th monthiversary, I didn't think that we would do much aside from our dinner. Graham, however, had other plans. This morning I woke up (at 8:45 no less! On my WEEK OFF! Ugh!) to find Post-It notes all over our bedroom, each with a special message for me. As I walked around I found the notes all over our apartment...literally.....







I'm NOT complaining. It was one of the sweetest, most romantic things he's ever done for me in 8 years and 4 months together. Granted, he's sweet all the time (it was one of the reasons I picked him) but this just takes the cake. I caught a glimpse of my face in the bathroom mirror as I was reading one of many "I love you because..." messages, and it was pure, unadulterated awe.

I'm really, really lucky. And really, unbelievably blessed. I didn't expect it, and I didn't really reciprocate. I got him a card from Hallmark. Not even a mushy, romantic card--a Shoebox variety card. It's clear which one of us got the romance gene in this relationship.

It was pretty perfect for a 100 monthiversary. We didn't do anything out of the ordinary. No stunning pyrotechnic displays of love and affection, and no sonnets spewed from balconies or love notes written in the sky. Today was very 'us'. It was simple, heartfelt, casual, and memorable. I don't care if it's not enough for some--it was perfect for us. We're not celebrating anyone else, just celebrating 100 months of us.

To end, I'd like to leave you with two photos, one from 100 months ago, and one from tonight at P.F. Chang's:

December 15th, 2000

April 15th, 2009

Here's to another 100 months. I have no doubt they'll be as memorable as the first 100.