We Haven’t Killed Each Other…Yet!

Twenty years ago today, I got up on a cold, rainy day and I dressed in a black suede skirt with a scalloped hem and a matching top. We piled into our car, stopping at Walgreens to buy one of those disposable cameras, then drove two hours to Joplin, Missouri where we had an appointment to get married in a hole-in-the-wall wedding chapel behind a florist shop.

The minister from the local Baptist Church asked if we had any witnesses to sign the marriage certificate. We didn’t. The owner of the chapel came to our rescue and picked up the phone. In just a moment, I watched a lady exit the back door of her house across the alleyway. She pulled rollers out of her hair and stuffed them in her coat pockets just before coming in and “witnessing” as The Husband Dude and I became man and wife. I got the feeling she had been called to do this before.

We celebrated with a cheap steak dinner at the buffet and a cheap motel for the night before heading back to Tulsa. There was no honeymoon.

Ten years later (almost to the day), we did it again, only with a “real” wedding. This time, I bought a real wedding dress and we rented tuxes and made our kids the wedding party. We had a real wedding chapel and a guest list and a caterer and a three-tiered cake with actual silver flakes in the icing.

The day of the wedding, we had a freak spring ice storm. Only thirteen people showed up. So we got married again and danced and had tons of leftovers for days. There was no honeymoon.

Today is our twentieth anniversary. We’re both going to work and then possibly go out to eat a slightly better steak than the first time around, if the Coronavirus hasn’t shut down all the local restaurants.

Because OF COURSE we are having our big milestone anniversary and OF COURSE we are trying to build a house in the middle of an actual Pandemic.

It just wouldn’t be us if we didn’t have some drama with our comedy.

It goes without saying…there won’t be a honeymoon. Or maybe real life is our honeymoon. I don’t know.

Anyway…it seems like THD and I have always had “our song” that seems to fit a particular time in our lives. When we were first together and falling in love, it was “Is This Love” by Whitesnake. When we got remarried, we danced to “Forever” by KISS.

As we go into our third decade together, this little song seems to fit the bill, especially the part about “you stayed for drama though you paid for a comedy” (see above). Doesn’t that describe life perfectly?

I’ll post the lyrics below, and then the video so you can hear it.

Happy 20th Anniversary, Husband Dude. I love you with all my heart.

“Colorful” by The Verve Pipe

The show is over – close the storybook
there will be no encore.
And all the random hands that I have shook
well, they’re reaching for the door.
I watch their backs as they leave single-file,
you stood stubborn, cheering all the while.

I know I can be colorful
I know I can be grey
I know this loser’s living fortunate
’cause I know you will love me either way.

Most were being good for goodness sake,
but you wouldn’t pantomine.
You are more beautiful when you awake
than most are in a lifetime.
Through the haze that is my memory
you stayed for drama though you paid for a comedy.

I know I can be colorful
I know I can be grey
I know this loser’s living fortunate
’cause i know you will love me either way.

Look ahead as far as you can see,
we live in drama but we’ll die in a comedy.

I know I can be colorful (when you live in black and white)
I know I can be grey (my colors fade away)
I know this loser’s living fortunate
’cause i know you will love me either way.

I know I can be colorful (when you live in black and white)
I know I can be grey (my colors fade away)
I know this loser’s living fortunate
and I know you will love me
yes I know you will love me
I know you will love me either way.