Our very first wedding anniversary!

It seems strange to say that today, August 31st, 2009, is Hubs' and my first anniversary, namely because it's not strictly true for several reasons:

1. We've been together (dating, that is) since late August, 2000--that's a total of nine years for those whose math skills are even worse than mine, and nine years are just one shy of a decade, which is...my god, a DECADE. We've been together over a third of my lifetime! Heck, we've been dating longer than many people stay married!

2. Speaking of dating, we don't actually know what day it was we started. We know it was late August, because I have nine-year-old e-mails to prove exactly what day Hubs first confessed his undying love and professed offers of lifelong worship and flowers to me--I kid. However, no clue, electronic or otherwise, what day we even went on our first official date. It's silly. I mean, we went to a Jayhawks concert (and made out the whole time and pretty much didn't hear any of the show but that's entirely beside the point) so you'd think we'd have ticket stubs, but NO. For all we know, it was August 28th. Or August 30th. So our anniversary date is a FRAUD ANYHOW. Ahem.

3. While it was true that our wedding was a year ago on this date, we actually got the marriage license completed at the county jail (don't ask) on August 5th. Our witnesses were a cop and a cafeteria worker, and my ring was the engagement ring I'd been wearing for over a year already at that point. So by that route it's been several weeks OVER a year.

You see how it's all confusing. But it doesn't really matter anyway.

What matters is that all this time we've been together.

We've endured eight moves and a break-up, lived in four different cities, dealt with numerous job changes and career crises, started a million and a half projects together, taught each other how to cook, focused on raising a cantankerous and obnoxiously playful cat together, done homework together, cried and shouted and cheered and laughed together, chopped wood and planted flowers and bought a house together, visited Europe and the Caribbean and the beach and Baltimore together, laid in the grass and watched the stars and sunsets together, planned a wedding and been to two funerals and baked birthday cakes together, and gone through a metric ton of anime and video games together.

The past year has been...eventful, to say the least. But we've done it all together.

Happy anniversary, Hubs. I hope we continue doing things together for the rest of our lives.