Today is my anniversary. Lucky 13, to be precise. Mrs. Digital and I will be celebrating this evening, with a (hopefully) quiet, intimate dinner. Not much more to say about this anniversary (after all, it’s 7 in the ahem…it hasn’t even gotten started. However, I’d be remiss if I didn’t share with you something that happened almost ten years ago, regarding our anniversary…I was in NYC, for FlashForward, a conference on what is now Adobe Flash. I was juggling a laptop, a cell phone and a PDA (remember those?) in my lap, listening to the first speaker of the day. My phone rang – my wife was on the other end of the line. She said “Happy Anniversary, darling!”
Pause with me for a nanosecond.
I’d never missed an anniversary. Here I was, a thousand miles away, the first time we’d been appart for a significant event in our lives, and I’d forgotten my anniversary.
Panic doesn’t begin to describe it. I was desperately punching my PDA for all it was worth, trying to figure out how it had failed me. I was also trying to not let on that I’d forgotten our anniversary to my darling wife. She sounded so sweet, saying “I’m so sorry you’re so far away, but we’ll do something really special when you get home.” I agreed, and we said our sweet nothings and hung up.
It was then it dawned on me. It was JULY 25th.
Not AUGUST 25th.
It was a month BEFORE our anniversary. I was safe…but curious. How did my wife forget the date? I called back five minutes later, to tell her. “Honey…our anniversary is not until NEXT month.”
“Um…yeah. I figured that out. Your father called this morning to wish us a happy anniversary, and I flipped out! I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten it, so I called you, hoping that I could convince you I hadn’t forgotten.”
I replied, “Yep. I did much the same thing when you called. I couldn’t believe that I’d forgotten it.”
So we laughed, hung up, and went on about our respective days. I returned home and we celebrated a month later.
Of course, now we get TWO anniversaries each year – August 25th (official) and July 25th (observed). Every year, I get to wake up on July 25th, roll over and say “happy anniversary, darling,” and see the look of blind panic on her face for a few seconds. It’s that look of dawning comprehension that she’s been pranked, hat I treasure, though. Ah, memories…
Happy anniversary, Mrs. Digital. For real.
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