feb 14 wrapup

Last night, I decided to make Robert a red-and-white dinner. The best I could think of was an Indian dish with whole spices, onions, tomato sauce, cauliflower, potatoes, and paneer (Indian cheese) with some peas thrown in for color. As accompaniments, we had Indian bread, Indian desserts, and some of that non-alcoholic bubbly juice. I thought it was delicious; Robert seemed pleased too.

Today is our 14th anniversary of being together. What a delightfully strange trip it's been. I'll look forward to the next 14 years and the next 14 years after that, should we be so lucky.

I was reminded yesterday of something that happened about 14 years ago. I had a friend named Cindy, who was married to Gary, the love of her life. I think she wished for more romance in her life. Gary loved her deeply, but just wasn't that kind of guy.

Cindy and Gary went out to dinner on Valentine's night with another couple. Cindy's friend happily announced that her husband had gotten her roses that day. Cindy was dejected. She turned to Gary and said "You never get me roses." Gary said "You never know. Don't make assumptions until you know." He kept that up for a while until Cindy said "You know, you've teased me like this in the past. I've always been disappointed, and I think you should stop now."

So they stopped talking about it and went on to happier topics. At the end of the evening, they went home. Cindy told me that she went inside first. There, on the counter, was a florist box with red paper surrounding a nice vase. Her heart skipped a beat. In the vase, were twelve long stems.

She paused -- the stems were surrounded by ferns and baby's breath, but there were no flowers on top. Next to the box was their cat Bridget. As they stared at her, Bridget burped and one lone rose petal fluttered out of her mouth.

For some reason, Gary didn't kill the cat, but he did keep asking her all weekend whether she was hungry. And Gary and Cindy both thought it was pretty funny. Cindy felt that the romance was back in her life, even if most of it had taken up residence inside of Bridget. And they went back to being a loving and happy couple.