Chuck and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary yesterday. It amazes me that so much time has passed. We went out to dinner at a restaurant in downtown Long Beach and ended up sitting across from a couple who were celebrating their 14th anniversary! They had actually had their reception at the restaurant, and had made a tradition of coming back there for their anniversary. They were younger than us, for all their having nine years on us, and are still deep in the raising-kids phase of their relationship.Still, it was fun talking about our weddings, and the fact that neither she nor I had wanted engagement rings. The restaurant gave us all free desserts (chocolate-covered strawberries), and we indulged ourselves and gobbled them all up. It was a pleasant evening, all in all.

I really can’t believe that it’s only been five years. This life I have now feels like the way it’s always been, and I can’t imagine my life now without Chuck in it. We didn’t do big gifts this year. I bought a little wooden sculpture, and we hid cards all over the house. I decided I was read\y for the engagement ring I hadn’t wanted five years ago, but we never got around to picking one out this year, so maybe we’ll wait for our sixth anniversary for that. In the meantime, we have this balloon, given to us by some good friends, so I have all of that helium to look forward to!