Rant #519: Sweet 18

Today is my 18th wedding anniversary.

I don't take such celebrations lightly, but today is a work day, and my wife is working late, so I won't see her until past 8:30 p.m. tonight.

We did go out with our son to Chinese food on Saturday night. It wasn't that great, but I guess it could have been worse.

What can you do?

I remember the day very vividly, June 6, 1993. It was windy as all hell, and we had an outdoor ceremony. Everything was blowing over, and I thought the kids that were there--my two nephews at the time, and my daughter--would blow away.

My soon-to-be wife was radiant. She wore the most beautiful wedding gown. She was smashing, to say the least.

All of our families and friends were there, including my mother-in-law, who was gravely ill. She lived to see her daughter married, and she had a great time for the short period she was there. She passed away just a few weeks later.

I was very excited to get married, and remember, this was my second--and I avowed my last--time. I thought I finally found the right girl to marry, and I was right. Eighteen years is a long time, but it is just one-third of my life and my wife's life, just to put it into perspective.

I really wish I would have met her earlier--even a year earlier. But the past 18 years have been the happiest of my life.

We have had an excellent marriage. We are pretty much on the same page on most things, although we differ on others, which makes it interesting.

She is a moody person, wearing her feelings on her sleeve, while I basically go with the flow, although I do get upset at times.

She likes spicier food, I like food that is delicately seasoned.

She likes an occasional beer, I like lemonade (and before my operation, soda).

She hates basketball, I love the game.

I also turned a former Mets fan into a Yankees lifer. She finally turned the corner when she became a Scott Brosius fan, and she has never looked back.

And we produced a son who is going through lots of growing pains as a teenager. But he will turn out all right.

She is the stepmother to my daughter from my first marriage. Although my wife doesn't get to be a stepmother very often, when my daughter is back home, she fills the role as best she can.

The bottom line is that I love my wife, I really do. She is intriguing, perplexing, mysterious and interesting, and the bottom line is that I am nuts for her.

We met on a blind date set up by one of those old fashioned dating services, pre-Internet or electronic dating. They basically asked me "what" I wanted, and they delivered.

She is half Italian, on her mother's side. She looks like Adrienne Barbeau, sort of, but she really doesn't, but that is how she described herself to me on the phone when we first chatted before we met.

Lucky me. Yes, I am a real lucky guy.

Nothing against anyone else, but I have the best wife in the world, bar none.

I love my wife, and I can't wait for the next 18 years ... or even the next 180.

It should be fun.