Anniversary Weekend, 2013

24 years.  That's pretty incredible when I think about it.  John and I have been married for 24 years.  At some moments, we have felt every day, minute and hour, but for the most part, the time has felt like a blink of the eye.

John noticed that I was pretty dang happy last year for our anniversary celebration in Ann Arbor, and I think he figured, "Why mess with success?", so he planned almost the exact same celebration again.  It didn't disappoint.

A couple of months ago, he bought tickets to the only Michigan home game near our anniversary:  Michigan vs. Nebraska.  He thought he had bought tickets out of the end zone this year…

Because we were so busy beforehand, we didn't really give the weekend much thought.  We put the tickets in my wallet, and we made hotel and dinner reservations just days before we left.

About to leave for Ann Arbor.  Yes, those are FLURRIES!

Actually, I was the one who hadn't given the weekend much thought.  John, on the other hand, had!

It's a six-hour drive to Michigan from State College, and he had a whole list of memories to relive.  We talked about the funniest moments from the past 24 years, the scariest moments, the happiest moments.  Goodness, we have had a lot of memories, both good and bad, although it's nice to look back at the bad moments and see that we survived them.  We stopped at Cracker Barrel (one of our favorite restaurants from when we were younger….and poorer), and kept remembering.  While we never have trouble making conversation anyway, the drive was over way too fast.

Because of the exorbitant prices for hotel rooms in Ann Arbor on game weekends, we stayed in Toledo for the night.  I had found the movie "Gravity" playing at a nearby theatre.  We had been wanting to see it for a couple of months but couldn't find the time.  Holy smokes, it was great!  I highly recommend it.

At this point, I will interject that when the kids asked what we did, I like to make them squirm by telling them that we also had "anniversary festivities".  I know TMI, but that conversation topic will most definitely clear the room at our house!  Kind of like yelling "FIRE!" at a movie theatre ;-)

The next morning we did the unthinkable.  WE. SLEPT. IN.  That's right.  No barking dogs, no meowing cats, no phone calls, no 6 a.m. alarms.  John even told our stake president that he wouldn't be able to participate in their weekly presidency conference call (usually held at 7 a.m. every Saturday morning).  I set the alarm for 9:30, and I only did that because I didn't want to miss breakfast!  It was soooooo nice to wake up after the sun.

We were in no hurry to leave which was also very strange.  When we finally got packed up, we headed to Ann Arbor.  Knowing the city so well comes in rather handy when we need to find football parking, and we want to avoid traffic.  We were parked at the institute building within minutes, and headed downtown to do some window shopping.

John had made reservations for 1:00 at The Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant.  While I liked it last year, I had been hoping to go somewhere different, knowing that Ann Arbor has a million different choices.  However, just one taste of that delicious food, and I realized that I was totally wrong.  I seem to forget how much I like eating there.  I drank several glasses of Diet Coke to my heart's delight.  Two hours later, we headed out to the game.

This brought up another memory.  When we were students at Michigan State, we were poorer than dirt.  For every football game held at Spartan stadium, we would head out and collect cans.  There is a ten cent deposit on each one.  Words can't describe the experience fully, because you just can't understand the humility one must have to dig through garbage cans (and come home smelling like beer). However, $60.00 back in the day was a week's worth of groceries, so we would do this every game day.  Too, we couldn't leave our kids at home, nor afford a babysitter, so we pushed the boys along in the stroller while we filled our plastic bags with bottles and cans.  A very crazy memory of when times weren't quite so easy.
 
 John was tempted to scalp our tickets for this game and collect cans when we saw about $9.00 worth sitting in this one front yard :-)

Turns out, John had gotten tickets for the end zone again, just on the other side.  The problem is that we couldn't see what was happening on the opposite end of the field, so we end up watching the screen which is something I could do at home.  However, when the action came down to our end, it was super exciting.  It seriously felt like we could see the individual faces of the players, being only 18 rows off the field.

I love football games.  We have gotten very lucky with good weather.  While it was incredibly windy, it was still a beautiful fall day.  I love cheering with the cheerleaders, I love singing "Hail to the Victors" and pumping my fist on every "hail".  I love it when a ball goes flying in the air and the entire crowd stands up to see if it's caught.  I love seeing the different honorees who are given recognition during commercial breaks (the outgoing President was the main player this game), and I love watching the marching band.  Too, there's something very exciting about being a part of a large crowd that is all cheering for the same team.

John apologized afterwards that Michigan didn't win.  Yes, it was rather remarkable, seeing that they have won the last 16 consecutive home games, and we showed up for the game that broke the record.  I kept telling him though that I didn't care.  It is just so much fun for us to go.

The only downside to the weekend was that John made me leave the game with five minutes on the clock!  I had told him that I would leave if Michigan was winning, but they weren't.  However, he was worried about us getting out and getting home (which he shouldn't have done).  Oh man, you should have seen me pouting as I watched the last five minutes on the tv screen out by the hot dog vendor.  I was a bit ticked, but this is marriage, right?

John shouldn't have feared.  Again, knowing Ann Arbor like the back of my hand, I got us out of the city without hitting ANY traffic.  Yes, I know how to work the system.  We swung by Schlotzsky's down in Toledo for one of my favorite deli sandwiches in the world, and we drove home.

Crazy thing?  We hadn't celebrated our actual anniversary yet!  The actual day fell on Monday, and John had taken the day off work.  Seeing as it was Veteran's Day, and John is a veteran, he wanted to hit up the restaurants for his free meals.  I suggested we invite our good friends from Germany, the Scattergoods, to lunch.  It's crazy that in our small corner of the world here, we have friends who were serving in the military at the same time we were.  At the time, they had no children and would watch our children when we went on vacation.  Now?  They have kids, we have fewer kids, and it's all good.


So, it was Texas Roadhouse for lunch.  After three hours there and nonstop great conversation, we decided to do it again for dinner.  At TGI Friday's.  Yes, there is one benefit of being a veteran:  free food one day of the year which reminds us that we need to get together with the Scattergoods! ;-)

Neither John nor I wanted the weekend to end.  In fact, if we hadn't had so many church responsibilities on Sunday, we would have stayed in Ann Arbor for one more day. However, life calls.  And that's okay.  It will all be part of the memories when we are looking back after year number 48.