anniversary — Page 9

Hey, Nineteen

October 12, 2017 at 8:48 am by Claudia

Make that nineteen years of wedded bliss.

We were (relatively) young whippersnappers, weren’t we?

Seriously, the wisest decision I’ve ever made was to marry this man. I had no intention of ever being married, was happily single…and then he walked into my life. Suddenly I was faced with a choice; avoid commitment, which was my previous M.O., or embrace it, despite the fear. I chose to embrace it and everything I worried about; would I feel smothered? would I have space? would I get bored with him as I had everyone else? would I lose my independence? – all of it fell away into nothingness.

The truth: I found an extraordinary man. Even in the midst of my fears, I knew that. I still know that. Every. Single. Day. And there’s not a day that goes by where I don’t thank God for bringing him into my life.

We met on July 4th. Four years later he proposed on July 4th. And the following October, in Nevada City, California, we were married.

I’ve never been one to disparage my husband, or to ‘commiserate’ with other women about my spouse. I have too much respect for him to do that. And why would I? As far as I’m concerned, I found the best partner in life I could have ever hoped for.

We’re in different parts of the country today, but we’ll celebrate when I get to New Orleans. We’ll have a lovely dinner on his day off, which is the 23rd. I mean, how romantic is New Orleans? Lucky us!

Happy Thursday.

La Jolla and an Anniversary

July 4, 2017 at 11:04 am by Claudia

Hello, all. After one extremely long travel day, about 11 hours total, I’m in La Jolla with my sweetheart. He greeted me with these roses and a vegan chocolate bar.

We’re going out to breakfast soon at his favorite place, Harry’s Diner, and then we’re going to mosey on over to Ocean Beach, where we met 23 years ago on this date. It’s the 23rd anniversary of that fateful day! Sort of perfect that I happen to be out here at this time, don’t you think?

The wi-fi here is dreadful. I have to figure out how to deal with it. I won’t be posting every day, but I will be posting, so if you don’t see a post one day, don’t worry.

Right now, Don is playing the ukulele and I’m at the computer. It’s a very small apartment, typical actor digs, and there’s ‘stuff’ everywhere. But it will be my home for the next several days so I will have to surreptitiously “rearrange” things when Don is doing his show. Ssssh! Don’t tell him.

One of the things that happens when you’ve been apart for 3½ months is that you get into your own routines. I’m already screwing up his routines and when we get home, he’ll be screwing up mine. And then we’ll readjust and all will be well.

Happy Fourth.

Happy Tuesday.

Our Celebratory Day

October 13, 2016 at 9:51 am by Claudia

Thank you for wishing us a Happy Anniversary yesterday!

It turned out to be a lovely, picture-perfect Autumn day and we decided to drive to Woodstock to celebrate with a meal at one of our favorite vegetarian restaurants.

Hop in the car and we’ll take you along with us. (All photos captured on my iPhone.)

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Further down the road from us – fall colors on display.

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The mountains we can see from our front porch. This, however, is the best view – so good that we stopped the car so I could take this picture.

We took the back roads all the way to Woodstock; a leisurely drive that brought more than a few gasps at the beauty surrounding us.

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Those are the Catskill mountains in the distance.

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A Little Free Library around the corner from the restaurant.

We love The Garden Café, but we hadn’t been there for a while. They’ve expanded into the adjoining space and the whole place has been redecorated and I fell in love with the new look.

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There are vintage mirrors, almost all of them round in shape, on all the walls. I’m now inspired to start collecting small round mirrors for the bathroom walls. I also loved the hanging lights.

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Can you imagine how thrilled I was to see this niche? Vintage pottery with dried flowers. Perfect.

I have to show you the bathroom.

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The bathroom door, which made me swoon a little. I would like this in my house, please.

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The coatrack right outside the bathroom door. Yes, of course, I’ll take it. (I wish.)

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Love, love this sink. Reusing these vintage porcelain sinks is such a great idea. And then there’s the vintage looking faucet and handles.

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Don went outside to take this picture.

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I love this man.

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Yours truly. My freckles are back.

Lunch was scrumptious. We met a couple visiting from England (Eleanor and Mike) and had a delightful conversation with them. They told us that after observing us at our table, they thought we were on a date. (Love that!) I guess we were on a date.

We exchanged email addresses and we’re going meet for tea when we go to London.

After lunch we took a walk and Don, who was carrying a mysterious bag, steered me toward one of our favorite places in Woodstock – this covered bridge:

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He pulled out two long-stemmed white roses. Back story: the man who married us eighteen years ago included the exchange of two white roses in the ceremony, and he urged us to do the same thing on every anniversary. We haven’t always been able to do that – sometimes we just plain forget to – but Don snuck out yesterday morning and bought two roses. So we stood on the bridge and gave each other a white rose, taking a moment to share our feelings and renew our vow to love and support each other.

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