Love Birds
It sounds so unromantic, but Joe and I are a couple who mutually forget the date of our wedding anniversary. We both agree it was a blue moon in June but need a pencil to figure the rest. Even so, sometimes we manage to pull off an occasional unrehearsed celebratory marking of our 24 year love affair. Every now and then the spontaneous meets the unconventional and leaves us thinking ‘we couldn’t have planned it if we tried.’
On Sunday I wanted to take pictures of valentine displays in downtown shop windows, so I kidnapped Joe who was stacking fire wood. We drove to town blaring the poetry of the beats, the holy holy howl of Allen Ginsberg, his sunflower sutra on the tape player, and Jack Kerouac’s stoned-out Shakespearean jazz reading of the Three Stooges and Neal Cassady.
At the Harvest Moon health food store, we managed to spend $65 dollars on things that were not on a list. He bought a Santa size bag of brown rice. I bought a frosted spice cake, because I like it more than chocolate. He put the car seat down in the “recline” position and rested while I ran around town and snapped.
Drunk on warm weather and sunlight, we headed home, but first stopped at our friend Catherine Pauley’s terraced garden. In amongst a grove of trees, a black cat crossed out path and became my new photographic subject. Stretched out together on the stone slab floor against a wrought iron gate that opened to a view of Buffalo Mountain, Joe and I got lost in conversation about death and burial rites while someone we didn’t know pulled up and fed the cat.
On Valentine’s Day he swept the cellar floor. He cleaned off the kitchen table that had been cluttered with his papers and laptop and left a singing card with a Motown song that reminded me of the dancing at the Surf Ballroom in Hull, Massachusetts when I was a teenager. It reminded him of “Colleen and the Funky Bunch” a musical video we made in Key West with Josh and Dylan (I was the Diana Ross of the group).
I hand-picked some candy conversation hearts for him and laid them out on a heart design napkin that I picked up at the Harvest Moon coffee station. Smile, Hold Hands, First Kiss. The pink heart left blank was our favorite.
He calls me lovey and I call him dovey. Our love is not for the birds.
February 15th, 2011 6:53 am
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Tiffany Miller, Sarah Santiago. Sarah Santiago said: Loose Leaf Notes » Blog Archive » Love Birds: Love Birds. It sounds so unromantic, but Joe and I are a couple wh… http://bit.ly/hlc832 […]
February 15th, 2011 10:52 am
Beautiful tribute to your love!! I forget your anniversary too. I believe it was June 29, 1996??
February 15th, 2011 11:04 am
Well if you forget it then it really is an intangible but not un-memorable in the least!
We got together at the end of 87 and when we got married I remember saying that we had been together for 9 years already. So with a little math, your date sounds right. I completely forget the 29th part.
February 15th, 2011 3:52 pm
Sounds like a wonderful day, and a wonderful love…congrats, you guys!
Wendy
February 15th, 2011 4:06 pm
You may not be “love birds” but you’ve managed a couple of days filled with more wonderful romance than all the high priced champagne and rich chocolates in red velvet boxes can conjure. Don’t have to wish you a Happy Valentines…. you HAD one!
February 15th, 2011 10:02 pm
How lovely that love and dovey remain such romantic sweethearts after so many years.
February 15th, 2011 11:01 pm
I lovingly read your blog, but never comment. This post make me smile until I notice my cheeks out of the corners of my eyes!
February 15th, 2011 11:12 pm
You guys are awesome. To hell with dates; you made off with the real prize! Happy Valentine’s Day.
February 15th, 2011 11:38 pm
Thank you for commenting, Cassie and all. Now it’s my turn to smile.
February 16th, 2011 2:55 am
This is so very sweet!
I feel a certain kinship, because my husband and I never remember our wedding date either. We had three weddings, and that is the excuse that we use (the first one was in June, though)
I love the picture of you two.
February 17th, 2011 12:38 am
[…] Meanwhile, my Love Birds post got a couple of […]
March 1st, 2011 12:29 pm
Very lovely! So cool you got married on a blue moon in June. My husband and I celebrate the anniversary of our first kiss–the first full moon of April. Our wedding anniversary is harder to recall. . .Favorite term of endearment: Goose.
September 17th, 2014 10:49 pm
[…] 6. Read about the time Joe and I drove to town blaring the poetry of the beats with the holy holy howl of Allen Ginsberg and his sunflower sutra and Jack Kerouac’s stoned-out Shakespearean jazz reading of the Three Stooges and Neal Cassady on the tape player HERE. […]
February 13th, 2016 1:16 pm
[…] Shot Sunday / Love to my sweetheart and Happy Birthday to my son […]