Anniversaries, of a sort

I mentioned to Cathy the other day that I think our anniversary was coming up. Which got me a strange look, as our anniversary is July 30. But my brain is wired funny. Cathy has noted that I have a real gift for useless information, which is why I’m dangerous at trivia. But I also tend to remember dates. Probably my studies in history. I was always good at remembering dates.

So right about now, five years ago, is when myself and Cathy started dating. On November 6 we were set up on a blind date (about as blind as you could make it. We didn’t know we were being set up until minutes before we met) to go see Monsters, Inc. I was smitten enough (an incident involving popcorn certainly helped) to see if she would like to join a group of us to see Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in 10 days time, on Nov. 16. She agreed. We met up at Harry Potter, agreed to split a large popcorn so we could have the excuse to sit next to each other. And then the group of us went to the Duke of Duckworth afterwards to engage in a couple of hours of post-Harry analysis. Before she left I worked up the nerve to ask her on a date. That was a good thing because while she was enjoying the conversation, she was also waiting for me to hurry up and ask her out.

The date, by the way, was Voices of Avalon (Anita Best, Pamela Morgan, Vicky Hynes and Colleen Power) at the Arts and Culture Centre. That would have been on Nov. 20. So I've never known what the anniversary is. The 6th, when we met, the 16th for the group event or the 20th which was our first "solo" date. I guess it doesn't matter too much.

And the rest is history. I nearly blew it a few times in the intervening weeks, but somehow managed not to (asking her out was nerve-wracking; trying to find the right moment to kiss her nearly drove me mad. Fortunately she solved it by kissing me first). By New Years one of our good friends was saying with certainty we would get married.

Anne was always a touchy spooky like that.

Anyway, I don’t think we’ll be doing anything to mark it. Maybe we’ll have a nice supper in the next couple of days, but certainly no gifts or cards. It’s one of those things, once you get married, that date is the anniversary. The anniversaries of first dates, first kisses and even the engagement, kind of fall by the wayside.

But I just like to think that that it was five years ago, while waiting for Monsters, Inc. to start that I glanced over to see my friend Erin and Cathy cracking up at the way she was getting rid of some spilt popcorn. And I thought “she seems fun. I wouldn’t mind getting to know her a bit better.”

And voila. Strange where you end up, sometimes.