Today marks 19 years of marriage for James and me. In the olden days, we would clear our work schedule and celebrate with a boozy lunch at the Outer Bar and Grille while the kids were (drink) at school. We'd sit outside looking out onto Pleasant Bay sipping bubbly and beers and I'd have my first lobster roll of the season. Then we'd take a power nap before becoming parents again and later in the week, we'd head to the Captain Linnell House for dinner and look out (drink) at the gazebo where we took our vows all those years ago.
This year, we thought we'd go a different route and spend the day home schooling the kids, cleaning up spills, breaking up arguments, and feeding them. As an added bonus, today is typing day for Kaleb and he has (drink) extra Lexia which is an online reading app that he despises. I made sure to fuel James with an extra large glass of seltzer so he could produce loud belches to mark five minute milestones as Kaleb progresses through his version of hell. Promises (drink) of loud burps was the only way to get him to plug through the program.
And let me just say, Lexia is WRONG on how you divide the word 'Festival' into syllables. It's Fes-Ti-Val. Not Fes-Tiv-Al. The internet says so. When you get something wrong on Lexia, you have to repeat the skill over and over and over. Even if they're wrong. I plan to write them a letter from a very disgruntled parent. On the plus side, James powered through with the boy and after many, many belches, he (they) advanced a level. In the world of Lexia (and Kaleb), that's a pretty huge feat. Kaleb even called into (drink) his teacher's office hours to share his great accomplishment. We'll have an extra bottle of champagne with our anniversary dinner to celebrate. Yes, I said bottle.
Actually, we may need three bottles because after five months of waiting without health insurance, we FINALLY got approved today. That's anniversary gift enough for me. Now if only that Vitamix would arrive. Adjusting to a world in which purchases take more than two days to ship is excruciating. I'm trying to chill and embrace a simpler way of life, but (drink) instant gratification is a tough thing to phase out of my psyche.
It's also hard not going out for dinner, every once in awhile, particularly on special occasions. But we came up with a temporary fix for nights we deem worthy of take-out. As per ushe (it's a word - I looked it up in the Urban Dictionary), we will have dinner at the ridiculous hour of 10pm after the kids are all FINALLY at least in bed, if not asleep. But (drink) instead of zoning out in front of Schitt's Creek, we will enjoy sushi takeaway at our restaurant - Chez Basement - and have an actual conversation. Beats the hell out of a water view lunch and romantic dinner out, don't you think?
We get out the good place mats and everything and see how I even put on a necklace? I couldn't bring myself to ditch the leggings though. Yes, things are different this year. But if our marriage can survive this (drink) lock down (and there have been moments...remember the haircut?), I'd say nineteen years is worth celebrating, even if it's Chez Basement and James is a little gassy from all the bubbles.