Today is Chip and my 10th anniversary, but I got my gift last night. Mainly because I'm an asshole.
You see, I am...how do the French say it...a total control freak when it comes to our family's finances. Not like, "Oh, I'm sorry, but we can't buy that flatscreen TV right now," but "Nope, we're not buying maple syrup this week because we already bought olive oil and they're both expensive items." As if you could somehow put olive oil on your waffles while you wait for the next week. Welcome to my world.
Anyway, yesterday was the always-anticipated quarterly meeting at Chip's work, the one where bonuses are handed out if certain company-wide goals are met. Naturally, even though Chip had mentioned something a few weeks ago about wanting to do something special with this bonus in light of our momentous anniversary, I told him that we should be practical (like we always are) and use the money for things like painting the upstairs ceiling and getting dirt for the side yard. I'm a hopeless romantic like that, wanting us to buy topsoil to celebrate ten years of wedded bliss. (You mean that isn't the traditional gift?)
This time, Chip took a page from a playbook that my father has perfected over nearly 41 years of marriage. He nodded and smiled and said, "Yes, Dear" when I told him we should be sensible, even on important occasions like 10th anniversaries (because, as you know, they happen all the time). And then he went out and bought me a diamond anniversary band.
He was forced to give it to me early last night because I was badgering him about whether he had remembered to take his bonus check to the bank and deposit it. He kept saying cagey things like, "It's been taken care of" and "I took it to the bank" until I got all glower-ey and irritable as I crushed grape tomatoes and smashed kalamata olives for pasta sauce. He stopped what he was doing--reading the ever-scintillating Lego Magazine to our son--and calmly fetched a small package, which he handed to me with the following words:
"I would do it all over again."
Me, too.
Happy anniversary, my love.