For many people, it is a year that will live in infamy. Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. A major U.S. city brought to its knees. Earthquakes, floods, typhoons, bad juju of all kinds.
In other words, a lot like every other year, but more so. And, as I am wont to say when I think about things like Rotten Years and Kidney Stones: This, too, shall pass.
On December 31, I prefer to spend more time thinking about the year to come than the year just past, for what is past is past. We cannot change it now, but we can affect what happens next.
This New Year’s Eve is special, however, and I will allow myself to indulge in a little reflection. For tonight marks the thirtieth anniversary of the day I met The Woman Who Would Become The Missus. She Who Must Be Obeyed, SWMBO her ownself.
I will not bore you with all the gory details of our first evening together. [If you’re really interested, the whole story can be found in the Archives.] Suffice it to say that we met, we liked each other, things worked out.
And here we are, thirty years later.
This morning, I was upstairs changing clothes after making an early exit from synagogue. The happy voices of a house full of people wafted up the stairs. There was William, our three-year-old nephew. There were Morris William (SWMBO’s younger brother) and his wife Rebecca. Elder Daughter and her boyfriend Khody. The Mistress of Sarcasm and her boyfriend Mickey. And, of course, She Who Must Be Obeyed.
Elder Daughter, the Mistress of Sarcasm, and Cousin William.
I thought back to that fateful day, all those years ago. Could I possibly have imagined being here today, hearing the voices of my own grown children? The children I would one day have with the lovely young lady sitting on that ratty sofa with me?
She Who Must Be Obeyed, my love for 30 years.
So it’s more than just a New Year’s Eve for me. I’ll spend the evening with the Missus, with my children and their Significant Others, and with good friends. The Texas contingent having gotten on the road this afternoon, they will be here in spirit if not in person. And I will drink a toast to the woman I love and the life we built together, in a three-decade stretch that began thirty years ago this very night in Houston, Texas.
Happy New Year to you, too, Esteemed Readers. May your 2006 be happy, safe, and healthy, without limit to any good thing.
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