Faded Glory... NOT!!!

It was nothing spectacular... just a simple celebration of our union day two years back.

Went to the mall and did a lot of the usual... walking, window-shopping, shopping, eating, talking, joking, tightly and intermittently holding the other's hand while strolling, arguing over bad habits and such, and unobtrusively observing people go about their ways in the scheme of weekday things. It was bordering on "cheesiness" and "corny-ness", I have to admit. But it was a very relaxing and satisfying day.

I didn't get her a gift nor a card, for that matter, yesterday. I know I should've. I don't know why I didn't. I guess it was because I already promised her a relatively expensive gift that she wanted for Christmas. So.... I assumed that it was a tacitly agreed upon condition that this gift, being relatively expensive, will have to cover for the Christmas and Anniversary gifts.

If this was three or five years ago, an anniversary gift would have been in order and a prompt card or letter expressing what I feel would have been in a hand-carried envelope --- ready to make her blush or smile or, if I had waxed hot in my writing, make her cry. Then, it would have been followed by a SPECTACULAR celebration. Fine dining in a hotel resto. A day trip to a lush garden enclave for lunch and coffee. Or what have you.

But it had been two years hence from the day we exchanged vows. And as they say, you lose a little of that luster once you've sealed it with your "you may kiss the bride" kiss. Well... let me re-phrase that.. you lose a little of that excitement (that giggly, positively anxious feeling every time you are in anticipation of a special occasion, like an Anniversary, Christmas, Valentine's Day.... or your first kiss or your "month-sary" or whatever it is you feel like celebrating) and that sense of preparation for the moment of note. The luster is still there, albeit taken for granted in some taken for granted way...

I remember 4 years back when I was still courting her... We just finished having dinner in a faraway haunt up in the ridges of a province 2 hours away from where we lived. The place was rather quiet. Not exactly empty, but amazingly quiet for that night. It was perfectly fine for us since we could afford a tranquil evening, seemingly by ourselves amidst a scattering of strange faces.

My detailed account of what we were talking about had escaped me since, but I vividly remember the one, defining thought that I pointed out to Her....

After a long pause in between conversation, I finally put a stop to my mere notice of a couple having their own version of an out-of-town-dinner. The two were situated just across our table. All along, while my Wife and I were busy getting to know each other, I couldn't keep myself from observing and feeling the tense silence that prevailed in our neighbor's table. Both of them just mechanically went about their meal, consuming every ort out of the plate robotically... totally unmindful of whether the other is enjoying the food or... the company.

At the end of that long pause, I quickly told my Wife (who was not yet my girl back then), that, if ever, we would end up together, I wouldn't want us to experience that cold, tense, full of contempt (and possibly, regret), and melancholic silence between those two people (after what I saw, they ceased to exist as a couple to me). That I would try do everything to prevent us from sliding into the abyss of negative familiarity --- the kind of familiarity that tends to work in reverse in terms of endearment (not referring to the honey's, sweetheart's, etc. here), that is, the more familiar you are to the person, the less endearing you become.

Wow...

So, yesterday, we had our anniversary dinner at a Museum-cum-Restaurant-cum-Cafe to top off our day-long commemmoration of our union. One can consider the place a fine-dining type. Well...you can immediately tell that you are in for a fine-dining treat by looking at the price and looking at the amount of servings on the plate. If it is inversely proportional, that is, the higher the price, the lesser the serving, then, you are in fine-dining (which is not always equivalent to dining fine, by the way).

And it was not bad at all, if I may say so. I mean, the place, the food, the overall experience. It was a needed dose of refreshing change after the blur that was December. It was also a needed injection of spunk to us as a couple. At that moment, I believed that it is a must for us to have this anniversary dinner every year to remind us of that cool dinner we had across the not-so-cool people 4 years ago.

After the dinner... I could say....

That 2 years past, we were still good. None of the negative silence. We argued, but settled amicably. And, most of all, we enjoyed our quiet and private world at that moment. At peace, sincerely happy, and thankful for the chance to be together in this world.

But I have to make it better. We have to make it a lot better. For we intend to be together for many, many, many more years to come.

And that's a lot of silence to conquer.