Personal: August 2003 Archives

Thank you so much to everyone who left anniversary wishes. John and I both appreciate them. I'm fortunate to have a great husband and to be part of the wonderful Internet blogging community. I wish I could share these with everyone!

4 Dozen?!?

My mom and dad actually share our anniversary date with us. They came in from Ann Arbor to celebrate with us and to see the Cirque du Soleil show Varekai that is currently in Chicago. (This is a great show, and I would encourage anyone who has a chance to see it to go!)

Of course, Mom and I took a quick trip out to Knitting Workshop. They were having their end of the season sale and a number of summer yarns were discounted between 50% and 70%. I didn't find much of interest because I am pretty done with cotton and cotton-blend yarns for the year, but I did pick up a few things:

The Trendsetter Fizz was $3/skein and there were three skeins of the lovely Denim color that will be meeting their destiny as a fall scarf for me to wear with jeans. As to the Rowan Plaid book, all I can say is that there will be some Plaid in my future. KW had a whole treasure trove of it and it feels wonderful. I'm particularly taken by the Lavender Mist, but I think I need to do a littl stash decreasing before I order yarn for another project.

Along those lines, I did bring another project close to a close: Charlotte's Web. Here's a picture of my unblocked accomplishment:

I am so taken by the colors and how they blend together. Matt of ThreadBear fame helped me pick them out and I am even more convinced of his color genius now that I am mostly finished, than I was when I first got the yarn. I'm particularly amazed how you almost can't tell where I am changing colors -- the way these skeins mixed it almost looks like I had 10 skeins instead of 5.

4th and 5th colors

Here's what the colors look like on the skein, placed next to where they are in my shawl:

I only have one last thing to sort out with this shawl -- what color will the crochet edge be? I really don't have enough of either of the last two colors to do the edge and still have a little yarn for the tassles. Here's the options I'm left with:

Right now I'm leaning toward edging it with the color used for the very first "stripe" -- the green/rust/brown skein on the bottom of the picture above. I think it would be both subtle and tie the whole thing together. But then there is a part of me that says I should be more adventurous and use the bright red/orange/yellow skein (the top one in the picture above) -- that this would bring out the rusty colors in the 5th color and make the edge of the shawl look fiery and vivid. There are three crochet chains... I could do one in each color... so many things to think about!

Opinions and comments are welcome!

Five years ago today, at three in the afternoon, I walked down the aisle of St. Camilus Catholic Church to stand at the altar with the wonderful man who was almost my husband. Almost anyone who knew me or knows me was surprised by the fact that I was so emotional that I could hardly speak. Emotional in a good way. I was about to marry the most remarkable person I had ever met.

For anyone who hasn't heard the story, John and I met in the ultimate geek way -- through a long-gone Internet personals site. I was in the last years of my PhD and he was living at home and working as a software engineer to put enough money away to buy a house. I posted a personal, he answered. Less than a week later we met for the first time.

Before I met John, I asked a lot of people "How do you know you've found the right guy?" The answer from most: "You just know." Being a scientist, that answer didn't do much for me. But now I know it's true. By the end of our first meeting I knew I had met someone special. It took only a few more meetings for me to "just know" that John was someone meant to play a special and singular role in my life.

He had all the qualities that I could want: smart, patient, funny, kind, thoughtful. He was the sort of person who could make me think differently about something or see things in a light I had never seen them before. Even more importantly, when I pushed, he pushed back. He gave me the intellectual challenge I needed. To this day I am amazed at the way he can work with people in a way that makes everyone feel like they are winners.

While I see it as a little corny to call him my "soul mate" or to pull words out of Jerry Maguire to say "he completes me", both statements are true. I'm an individual, and I can stand for myself, but John often gives me the love and support to go just one step farther than I thought I could. He suffered with me through my mostly miserable post-doc, encouraged me when I decided to go in for another round of school and get my masters in computer science, and listens patiently when I tell him of my struggles in my current job and company as I learn my new role as a member of my company's management team. He never complains when I buy yarn. No matter how down I get, he can always make me smile. He treats me like an equal partner in all things. For me, it's an incredible thing to be able to think "no matter what happens, we'll be there for each other".

So today I will spend a lot of time remembering back to 5 years ago. I'm going to see myself at that alter, wearing the big white dress standing in front of this fabulous guy who looks so perfect in his tuxedo even in the heat of a Chicago August. If there's one thing in my life that I will never have any regret saying, and would say over again today, it was the two simple words I said five years ago:

"I do"