I have to tell the story of how Dave and I came to get married. It is a pretty funny story. Dave and I did not plan on getting married. It kind of just happened.
For the first year we were together, we moved around alot, just traveling and checking out places we thought we might like to live. I won't explain the situation here because this story is not about that, but lets just say that we had the means not to have to work at all for that year.
After about 16 months we had finally settled in a town where we thought we would like to live and decided to buy a house right off the bat. My younger son was living with his dad and an evil stepmother and I wanted my son to come and live with us to get him out of this not too happy situation. And wanted him to have a real home to live in.
Everything was going fine, we had opened a business together but were having to pay separate insurances, taxes, etc. and I told Dave one day, while doing the bookkeeping, that it would be much more advantageous to us if we were married because we would not have to pay double for everything. Ever the practical one, he said if I thought it was a good idea, then we should probably get married. If that sounds a tad unromantic to anyone, let me assure you that our relationship was anything but without romance. But we had both been burned in divorces and really had not thought that either one of us wanted to go down that road again.
Of course, once we decided that marriage was a sound financial idea, the idea of being husband and wife became something the really meant a lot to both of us. So, we made an appointment to get our marriage license on a Friday. We were going to get the license, go across the hall the the Justice of the Peace and be married in time to have a weekend "honeymoon" at home. Only by the time we got to the JP's office, it was closed because they went home early on Fridays. I couldn't believe how disappointed I was. Dave made the comment we could just do it some other time and I was amazed at how disappointed he wasn't.
We spent all day Saturday, spackling walls and prepping to paint our dining room and I must have looked pretty bummed out because Dave kept asking me what was wrong. I said "nothing" and it must have been in that tone that said "everything" because he came over and hugged me and I started crying like a little kid. The whole marriage thing had completely enveloped me, which was a complete surprise because I remember that I was the most resistant one for a long time. After finishing the walls, we went out for dinner and Dave tried to make me feel better, which he did, like always.
On Sunday we started painting and about 2 hours into it, I went into the bathroom, shut the door and cried like a baby, again. Dave came to the door and asked me what was wrong. I did the "nothing" routine again and he said he knew better and did I want to call the magistrate and see if they would be able to marry us that afternoon. I said yes, of course, and called and sure enough, the magistrate wasn't busy that afternoon and said to come on down.In the town where we were living, the magistrate that worked on the weekend was in the jail, so that is where we had to go.
Picture that we were both wearing the clothes we were painting in, because when I had called, I had been told we needed to come right away, in case they got busy. So there we were, wearing paint covered clothes, I had a bandana around my hair and Dave had 3 days stubble on his face. At first the magistrate thought we were there to bail somebody out of jail. I explained the situation, we all had a good laugh, he asked for the license and asked where our witnesses were. Witnesses? Nobody said anything about bringing witnesses and I thought, here we go again...
There in the waiting room of the jail, were two women. One woman was there to bail her husband out because he had gotten drunk at their grandchild's birthday party the night before, started raising hell and the son-in-law had called the cops to take him to the drunk tank. The other woman, who was the tallest female I had ever seen in my life up til that point, was there to pick up her son who was in jail for trying to stab her the night before and she had called the cops and had him locked up. They both said they thought it would be just grand to stand up for us because it was taking a really long time for their family members to be processed for release.
So, Dave and I, the magistrate and our two witnesses, walked outside and up the steps into the tiny flower garden that was planted against the side of the building, where we were married on that cold, gray Sunday in November. After we got married, we went home and finished painting the dining room. November 5th, 2010, would have been our 15th anniversary.
