NS asked us at dinner to name some memorable anniversaries. I was stumped. I've long preferred to celebrate November 4, 1981, the day we were introduced. The 25th anniversary of this came in 2006. It was celebrated in Moscow, where we rented the Near Dacha (courtesy of the U.S. Embassy) and invited close friends for a dinner. Our then 9-year old and 12-year old, wrote a reader's theatre about their interpretation of our meeting, and directed the guests as it was performed.
I told her I couldn't remember notable anniversaries but I could remember noteworthy events: being handed a naked, warm, pink, wet baby; coming home from Quilt Camp watching my son proudly ride his bicycle up and down the street, sending my crying daughter out my classroom door to the new playground that she had to face without any family, watching her dress as Audrey Hepburn to emcee a concert, laughing until my sides ached and tears ran down my cheeks as the three people most precious to me lay on our big bed playing windshield wipers. It was the moment I realized the difference between enjoying life and celebrating, concluding I'm not much of a celebrator, but more of a liver. That doesn't exactly look like the liver that I mean...but somehow, lifer doesn't look right either.
Knowing all that, you might appreciate the events of the past 24 hours... We checked into our hotel, and were grateful for three beds, air conditioning, a BIG bathroom, even if there was no shower curtain, one of those the bathroom is the shower types, but with lots of room and plenty of space to store the toilet paper from getting wet.
We enjoyed a lovely grocery dinner on the balcony in the fresh sea air. S2 bought the wine. The grin on his face told me he was pleased. Brand name: Bear's Blood. He never would tell me how much it cost.
We headed out for a walk on the beach while NS cozied up with the AC and TV remotes. Upon our return, she reported the shower never got warm. While switching the plugs, we blew a fuse. Everything went off, TV, AC, fridge, lights.... Did I ever tell you we forgot to pack a flashlight? or candles?
S2 and I headed downstairs to try to explain to the non-English speaking woman who checked us in that we had no electricity. No one there. Oh, but there was a phone number taped to the counter. I assumed it was for emergencies. Something about the Cyrillic writing with it was the tip off. Hmmm, big mystery, we had no cell phone service. Not a no signal, or weak signal or searching for signal...No Service. No wonder none of us had received the two text messages from Vodafone. We were in no service land. We went to the basement in search of a fuse box. Found one, and hey, our room number was the only fuse in the off position. Flip that switch and return to the room .... No change. After knocking on some unmarked doors, finding no one to help us, we gave up and went to bed.
It was quite the night, laying there thinking about how freezing cold the shower had been and how how warm the room was getting, but unable to open the balcony door because the mosquitoes would come in eat NS and S2 (she had 17 bites at last count). The restaurant across the street had a lively crowd until 4 in the morning, so even if I did open the door it would be even noisier than it already was. All this on the eve of our 25th wedding anniversary. Well, none of our anniversaries have been especially remarkable, so did I really think this one would be any different?
Unable to sleep, I tried to think of best possible scenarios, all of which included moving to a nicer hotel room where the fuses did not blow. Even though that meant packing up and moving, the very thing we DIDN'T want to do today. By 6, S2 was up, ready to eat his BIG breakfast before he tackled the problem. He said to me, "why don't you comb your hair, you might feel better!" As if that would help.
As he ate and ate (and ate) he went over various scenarios. He would demand our money back and move to a different hotel, but should he find a new hotel first. If she was able to fix it, would we still move to a new hotel? What if they offered us a different room? The room was certainly cheap enough that even if they didn't give us a refund, we could walk away. On and on and on he went, while bleary-eyed me tried to comprehend what was even going on. Somehow, NS just kept sleeping.
So, off he goes to find the desk clerk, who walks in the room, points to the small fuse box above the door and motions for S2 to flip the switch that is obviously in the wrong position. He couldn't stop laughing. I failed to see THAT much humor in it, set the AC on high, and went back to bed.
By the time I wake up, S2 was nearly finished hand washing all our laundry (having figured out how to turn the hot water heater on), NS had eaten breakfast, and both were happy to see me in a better mood.
So, as the two of us splurged and rented a beach umbrella and two lounge chairs on the shore of the Black Sea, going in the water to cool off, we reflected on our 25 years of marriage. We both admit, it hasn't always been easy, but we've learned a lot about adapting and being flexible, and about leaps of faith.
Maybe the next time someone asks if we ever had a memorable anniversary, I'll remember this one, or maybe I'll try to remember and only come up with memorable moments of living: my daughter's squeals and wiggles as she read the menu at the Three Broomsticks, my son's incredible graduation speech, my husband's laugh when our daughter squeezes into our embrace and says 'y'all make room for Jesus.'
NS excused herself from dinner and went for a walk on the beach. Shortly after she left, there were fireworks in the sky, lovely bursts of orange, gold, yellow, red and green. Yes, us romantics had to kiss and say we saw fireworks. They lasted a short 5 mins, and when NS returned, she announced, "so you thought I was in the room all day, but really ...." I finished her sentence, "you were arranging fireworks for our anniversary."
I slept much better that night. No noise from the neighbor restaurant with the AC running all night.
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