Six Years Ago

Six years ago, plus a day, I woke up with an upset stomach. A really upset stomach. I vomited pretty much everything I'd eaten the previous day. Sadly, I had a good idea what had happened -- I'd made the mistake of eating red meat (it was the only meat on the buffet a friend took me to, and the buffet was even sparse on veggies), and having given up red meat several years before, my body could no longer handle it. I was in miserable shape. Kathy was more than a bit stressed by my condition. We were supposed to be doing lots of errands, and it fell to her to do them all by herself. We were hosting a party all the next day, and there I was, too weak to do anything. She was not a happy camper. We went out for dinner with some of the people in town for the party, and I had to leave early -- I couldn't even handle broth.

Six years ago today, I was still in bad shape, but fortunately some friends came over and helped Kathy with setup for the party, including doing some of the last-minute errands. Lots of guests came, many from far away, and I lay weakly on the couch, struggling to do much beyond greeting them. Thanks to Kathy and friends, the party was enjoyed by all who attended, despite me, not because of me. Toward the end of the day I started to feel better, so that by that evening, I wanted to go out. Kathy yelled and screamed at me, pointing out that we had stuff going on the next day, and that I needed to be in decent shape for that. I promised her that I would do whatever I needed to do the next day, but that I really wanted to go out then. That wasn't good enough for her, and ultimately I relented -- I knew that nothing was more important than maintaining domestic tranquility, and that even if I won, I'd lose.

Six years ago tomorrow, I was still a bit weak, and didn't eat as much as I might have otherwise, but I was indeed up for the demands the day presented. I remember we both woke up pretty early, and before things got too busy, we took a short walk around our neighborhood -- I specifically recall that a neighbor's poppies had come into bloom, and we stood there admiring them for a while. The fight from the previous night was washed away -- we even laughed about it a bit. She could plainly see that I was doing better, and indeed, later that day, we walked down the aisle, said "I do," and got married.