Anniversary

Zion National Park, 2018

Years ago, the two of us went to Topsail Beach on vacation. We stopped by a grocery store the first night and picked up a few supplies. The next morning we headed out to the beach and jumped in the ocean and lolled around in the sun. When we got back, we made a simple lunch—ham sandwiches and blue corn chips. They were incredible. We couldn’t believe how good they tasted.

Monday night, for our 24th anniversary, we went to a lakeside restaurant called Hello, Sailor. We got a table by the water and watched the sun go down and sipped frozen cocktails. For supper I had a smoked shrimp roll. It was incredible. I couldn’t believe how good it tasted.

Funny how much better things taste when Alix is around.

I wrote a column about her the day we got married, and I’ve written a couple more since, but my thoughts on love and marriage come around to a simple truth: The person who makes everything better when they’re around—that’s the one you should be with.

Nobody gets 24 clean years. We’ve had lots of hard times, some of our own making, some through circumstance. We’ve definitely had days when we didn’t want the other one around. But rarely for long. And never for good.

We’ve had a lot of peaks, too. But what I think about most is how all the ordinary moments seem … different. We go to a baseball game and the grass is in Technicolor. We sit down for breakfast and the light comes in through the window like a Vermeer. We’re across the room from each other at a party and I look over and she winks at me, and it feels like a scene from a musical.

At some point pretty soon we’re going to start making plans for our 25th anniversary. It’s a big one, so we want to do it up right, but the truth is, I don’t really care where we go, as long as we go together. Because I know the light will be stunning and the scenery will be amazing and the sandwiches will be incredible. Wherever she is.