The show must go on: our four-year anniversary

April 2007.

I'm still feeling pretty queasy. I've eaten nothing but saltines and ginger ale since Tuesday night. But, my goodness, today is our anniversary! And if that isn't a reason to smile, I don't know what is.

February 18th, 2006, was the day we met. I wrote all about it here. This anniversary, our so-called Dating Anniversary, has always felt more meaningful than our wedding anniversary. It was the very beginning of us, our origins, that day Patrick drove all the way to Ithaca with a flowerpot full of garden seeds in his backseat (because fresh flowers would've frozen in the cold).

It was the start of something big. Things were sweet and calm and almost formal for the first few months. We arranged dates via cordial emails. He started calling me every night. He brought me flowers a lot. Once we passed the three-month mark, things started happening, fast. We said I love you. We met each others' parents. I started thinking, quietly, that he might be The One.

The sweetest part was when I realized he'd been thinking that, too.

Tonight, there will be wine, and homemade pasta. There will be candelight and shared smiles and reflections on how lucky we are to have spun a relationship out of a chance Myspace meeting.

Four years. Here's to forty more.