\u201cWe\u2019ve had 20 years to plan our 20th wedding anniversary! TWENTY years!!! It\u2019s a week away! We have NOTHING!!!\u201d<\/p>\n
It was one of those moments when you try to sneak out of the room. My wife seemed just as upset with herself as with me, and since she clearly had this under control \u2026 I \u2026 would \u2026 just \u2026 quietly \u2026 tip-toe \u2026 out \u2026 of \u2026 the \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere are you going?!?\u201d <\/p>\n
So close. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re complicit in this, too, buddy. We\u2019re complete anniversary failures.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I know. I\u2019M SO MAD AT MYSELF! What were we thinking? Oh, well \u2026 I guess we\u2019ll just make it up on our 30th. Want to take one of those airplanes that lands on water?\u201d <\/p>\n
She looked like she might kill me.
\n<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not totally true we didn\u2019t have anything planned. There were reservations for a romantic dinner. We were planning a weekend getaway. And because the appropriate gift for a 20th anniversary is China, I had printed out a map of \u2026 China! Pretty crafty, huh?<\/p>\n
Plus, there was my secret weapon: My wife\u2019s love language is \u2026 yep, you guessed it \u2026 words of affirmation. Jackpot, baby! Some people like gifts. For others it\u2019s quality time or physical touch. But my wife just needs a few words to show I care. And lucky me, this fine newspaper gives me like 500 words every week to write about whatever I want. I got words coming out the \u2026 well, that\u2019s not very romantic. But anyway \u2026 <\/p>\n
All I need to do is not waste too much space filling you, the loyal reader, in on why this column is about to take a very romantic turn and \u2026 OMG! I\u2019ve already used up like 300 words! I\u2019m running out of \u2026<\/p>\n
Focus, Brian! Be genuine. Be authentic and original: \u201cHow I love thee. Let me count the \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
No, no. Authentic. From the heart. Like think back to the day you were married. That wonderful, incredible, amazing day. Our wedding took place downtown at the historic Llambias House. Our vows were right in front of the little barn-like building, and I\u2019ll never forget a raccoon walked by. I took it as a good sign. I don\u2019t know why. <\/p>\n
And my wife. Well, she was just spectacular. Radiant. Like she floated down from heaven. I felt like I could be her doorman, but certainly not her husband. I flip through photos of us that day, and I look like a little boy who had no idea what he was doing. How did I convince this gem of a woman to marry me?<\/p>\n
And to stick with me for 20 years? Through thick and thin. And 20 years later, there\u2019s still no one I want to spend even a fraction of my time with more than her. How was I lucky enough to find someone like this? <\/p>\n
Maybe we are terrible anniversary planners. Eh, so be it. If that\u2019s one of our relationships\u2019 biggest problems, I\u2019ll take it. <\/p>\n
Plus, I\u2019ve got this whole column and that\u2019s a huge opportunity to say \u2026 oh crud, out of words \u2026 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cWe\u2019ve had 20 years to plan our 20th wedding anniversary! TWENTY years!!! It\u2019s a week away! We have NOTHING!!!\u201d It was one of those moments when you try to sneak out of the room. My wife seemed just as upset with herself as with me, and since she clearly had this under control \u2026 I \u2026 would \u2026 just \u2026 quietly \u2026 tip-toe \u2026 out \u2026 of \u2026 the \u2026 \u201cWhere are you going?!?\u201d So close. \u201cYou\u2019re complicit in this, too, buddy. We\u2019re complete anniversary failures.\u201d \u201cYeah, I know. I\u2019M SO MAD AT MYSELF! What were we thinking? Oh, well \u2026 I guess we\u2019ll just make it up on our 30th. Want to take one of those airplanes that lands on water?\u201d She looked like she might kill me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573,561,557,566],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2018-nutshells","category-family","category-getting-old-er-older","category-marriage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1726"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1727,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1726\/revisions\/1727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}