Happy Anniversary, Fang!

Today is my wedding anniversary. As it turns out it’s my 24th wedding anniversary. I, as a result of my failure to grasp something as basic as subtraction, was convinced that it was my 25th wedding anniversary.

I had mentioned several times, in the days and weeks leading up to the momentous occasion of our silver anniversary, how we should do something special this year. Fang agreed, but then I got busy doing something very exciting (more on that tomorrow!), Fangette required a boatload of money for college application costs, we bought several pieces of furniture, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So, we didn’t make any big plans. Thank goodness for that!

I had to leave early this morning to get into the city — in order to do my very exciting thing! — and decided, before the day got away from me, that I would send Fang an anniversary text — he routinely “beats” me to these things, but I had to get up pretty early this morning, so I was able to be the one to actually “send” this text, rather than “receive” it, as I usually do! As an afterthought I also posted “Happy 25th Anniversary, Fang!” on my Facebook page. Shortly thereafter, Fang texted me, pointed out my mathematical error, and wished me a happy 24th anniversary. Oh, my God.

I had to change my Facebook status to “Oops, I’m an idiot” (or something of a similar nature). I called Fang and admonished him for allowing me to labor under this delusion for several weeks. I asked him why (WHY? WHY? WHY?) he hadn’t corrected me. Not surprisingly, he said that he didn’t hear me.

I’m not sure whether or not I believe him. You see, Fang has come to expect me to get this type of thing wrong. For example, he gets a little persnickety about the quirky habit that I have of not reading the cards that I give to people. If I like the picture and it’s in the proper section, I usually just buy it. To be fair, he wouldn’t characterize this habit as quirky. It’s highly likely that he would define it as lazy.

The funny thing about this method is that the only person that it ever backfires with is Fang. I have accidentally given him a Valentine’s Day card meant for a son, a birthday card designed for an African-American woman (I still contend that the Hallmark’s “Mahogany” collection is murky!), and a Father’s Day card better suited to someone with an estranged relationship.

Of course, this year he received a beautiful 25th anniversary card (one that I actually read!) and a silver picture frame. As for next year, he’ll just have to settle for the lovely 25th anniversary post that I had all ready to go today. I’m certainly not wasting the beautiful things that I wrote in honor of our 25th anniversary on something as mundane as a 24th anniversary. That’s for damn sure!

photo credit: rose