July 17, 1999

On July 17, 1999 Tom and I got married. Ten years ago. It was a beautiful day and the best decision I ever made. But it had a few bumps. The largest being I completely choked as I started walking down the aisle and decided I did not want to get married. I was the stereotypical crying bride but it was primarily because I had decided I was not getting married. My dad had a death grip on my arm forcing me down the aisle, making sure than in fact, I was getting married.

Since it was a small church Tom saw this and had a bad feeling there was about to be a runaway bride. Everyone else thought I was crying from joy. Once I made it to the front and my dad firmly "gave" me to Tom I calmed down and figured I would go through the service and deal with the problem later. Seconds later there was no more problem. Tom was my husband. What a cool thing. Needless to say, except when he metaphorically left his underwear on the floor, I never regretted marrying Tom. I wish I had taken his name.

During the service a huge storm blew in and all electricity was lost. The reception was at my folk's house and so for quite a while we just sat in their family room, in the dusk, and drank. When the power came on we ate and drank more. We had our wedding dance to Elvis.

Tom and I had challenges, but to borrow a phrase I heard recently, by the end we were fused into one. Or another way I think of it is we were like a big, thick, powerful rope that might be on a ship. Even if you work real hard and rip the strands apart, pulling the rope in two, each half keeps the same wiggly shape it had before. Sadly, divided, it is just half as strong.