Old dogs, old tricks

Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?
Henry Ward Beechersigh ...

You know ... I really did almost convince myself that this time it would be different. This would be the time we would break out. Do something unheard of - unprecedented - new and different, and fully fitting the marking of The Occasion. It's our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary today, for cryin' out loud! That's a big deal! We should travel. Go to Canada or Europe --- or Seattle. But no. What are we going to do?

Well, we did get rings. His ring is refabbed - mine is new. I love the way mine feels on my right hand. I've wanted a nice ring for that hand for a long time, and this one feels so natural and sleek. I love it. And it's mighty nice to have my married husband wearing his wedding ring again.

But seriously, folks. Wouldn't you think that we could think of something amazing and different? Something we've never done before? A big party - we don't even ever have a big party. (It's probably because we don't like big parties.) No, not us. We're going to go to the beach, and we're going to go to the bookstore on our way out of town! Sheesh! The car probably knows by now how to do this routine without our even steering it.

Wouldn't you think I'd be ... well ... a little disappointed?

I tried to be. I did! I really tried to work myself into a pout and a funk and a fuss. But I couldn't pull it off! In truth, I think it's a little bit funny - and I think it's very dear and comfortingly "us" that we're so chronically dorky. Today's the anniversary - but he goes to work, and I go to school. On Friday, when he gets away from work as early as possible, we'll just do what we've been doing for a quarter of a century. (Sounds impressive, that does.) We'll pack the car (probably using a couple of clothes baskets, which we prefer to suitcases), and we'll head through Portland and stop at Movie Madness, and then at Powell's. He'll stand around in the Lit section, and probably visit Religion, Philosophy, and History too, and I'll wander in the Writing-Ref. section and then into the Poetry and Lit sections, with a short walk through my favorite parts of the Children's Room. We will have done the same thing in other sections at the movie place. We're like a commercial for an old brewery or something - "why mess with tradition?" That sort of thing.

It's probably time to stop wondering when we're going to be innovative with our well-worn habits, eh?

I might as well settle down. That's just who we are. We're the people who gather up books and other things to read (foreign and domestic), stash a few good films (also foreign and domestic), a change of clothes, and something fantastic to eat into the trunk, and drive off to the beach. We almost never listen to the radio. We generally hold hands - until the conversation requires the movement of the hands - and it often does. This weekend, we'll just be us, driving toward the beach again. It's what we do. Ever since this day, twenty-five years ago.