chocolate with chocolate

do you ever find something so ordinary to be so very sad? today i bought my parents an anniversary cake, chocolate with chocolate of course, and a card. the card was the hard part. perhaps it’s the supermarket’s fault, but all the cards were either too tender or mushy or bizarre to me, in the context of my parents’ marriage. why don’t they have cards that say “we four sisters love you so much and here’s hoping that you two struggling wonderful people will have a marriage that only grows richer in love and more delightful to you both as time goes by”. but of course i would never send that card: though it isn’t passive aggressive, it might be interpreted that way.

i ended up buying one that was “humorous,” with two funny looking dogs on the front. the inside says, ‘it’s cute the way couples start to look alike after a while. happy anniversary.’ you know what? if i ever get married, i want anniversary cards to be painfully mushy. i don’t care how embarrassing they are. i just don’t want some humorous card about how the husband sits and watches tv, how the wife is a nagging shopaholic. that’s not funny to me. and yes, love is about the hard bits of life as well, but really? an anniversary is a time to celebrate the good stuff.

speaking of which, buying a card may be ordinary, but being married for 28 years is not, these days. so here’s to you, my struggling, loving, beaten-up parents. keep on truckin’.