Happy Anniversary!

On this date in 1997, Mr. Sweetie and I stood up in a restaurant (the dearly departed Terra Luna), surrounded by a few close friends and family who thought they were there for an engagement party, and got married. 

I highly recommend the surprise wedding.  The only people who knew we were getting married that night were our pastor, the restaurant owner, and us.  It took very little planning and effort, but it was really special.  I don't think anyone there will ever forget it! 

So, twelve years later and we are still going strong.  I don't know exactly why we work, but I have some clues.  One is that Mr. Sweetie is generally the most easy-going, laid-back person.  He is easy to please, difficult to tick off, and very good at going with the flow.  (How many cliches can one person work into a sentence, I ask you?)  Which leads me to another reason why we work--we complement each other.  He is easy-going; I am wound too tight.  Which means he regularly talks me down off a ledge and I make sure that the bills get paid on time. 

I have several dear friends and family members who are either newly divorced or are going through a divorce.  And I know it is hard for them to get back out there.  God knows it was for me.  (This ain't my first rodeo.  Mr. Sweetie's neither.)  But one thing I learned this time around is to give the good guy a chance.  I can't say that it was love at first sight for me, although it was like at first sight and respect at first sight.  (Don't worry, Mr. Sweetie would tell you the same thing about me.)  But I genuinely liked Mr. Sweetie and could see that he was a hell of a guy.  So I gave him a chance.  And I'm so glad I did!  It's like Cynthia Heimel says:

"You never get anywhere until you figure out the difference between passion and compassion.  Love affairs that begin in passion burn themselves out real quick, like blue stars.  You gotta watch out for them, hon, they can burn you up too.  But then there's the love affairs that begin in compassion, those are the ones you want to find.  They just build and build into real passion and then, well, then it's like you can just drive into the sky, right up into and right past those blue stars."