Pour Some Saccharin On Me

This weekend, we will celebrate out 14th anniversary, and the last anniversary we'll celebrate unmarried. Strange to say, I have mixed emotions.

Yes, I am very much looking forward to being Mrs. Devoted Partner, but I've been saying for years that I don't like the idea of renumbering our anniversaries. October of 2012 won't see our first anniversary, it will see our 15 1/2, more or less.

Conventional wisdom, coupled with conventional scare tactics, dictates that Everything Changes (TM) once you get married. Obviously, I'm not buying that. And while it sounds pretty macho to say that we've been married in all but name for years, that does diminish the importance of deciding to legally wed, and I'm not into that either.

As we go through the massive checklist of wedding needs, I realize that the devoted partner moniker is more than just cutesy. For all the years when I felt the term boyfriend was insufficient and referred to him as my partner, apparently it wasn't just vanity. When we joke about being willful and stubborn enough to work through the problems we encounter in the future, beneath that joking is the knowledge that we have worked long and we have worked hard at this partnership and that's what will enable us to weather the unavoidable storms of a lifetime together.

Happy anniversary to my devoted partner from his devoted partner.