Monday

Tomorrow is the ten-year anniversary of our first "date." I met Sunshine at the end of October, 1996, and we became friends over the following half-year. After an April's Thursday TV line-up (we were E.R. devotees at the time), I needed a ride home. Instead of being taken to my own house, however, I was whisked away to a freshman girl's dorm in Roanoke, Virginia (with a brief stopover to buy a toothbrush). Tomorrow is the anniversary of that night. Now that we're married there are more dates to celebrate, but I suspect this one will remain our "real" anniversary. What's this have to do with today? Initially, when fantasizing about what we wanted to do this April tenth, we decided to have a big party with all of the friends. This hasn't panned out, owing to the strict attendance policy at Sunshine's school. Our grand plans boiled down to dressing nice for a fancy dinner on Tuesday. I thought I'd wear the suit I got married in (this being our "real" anniversary and all). So this afternoon I got the thing out of hiding and headed down to the convenient dry-cleaning place in the exercise yard of our Oakwood compound. The lady there said I'd be unable to retrieve my pressed and starched stuff before Wednesday evening. "No," she told me, "they pick-up tomorrow, then bring back the next day." There was nothing to be done. Luckily, the suit jacket I wore* at Sunshine's swearing-in was plausibly wrinkle-free. Still, a twenty-four hour turnaround doesn't seem like asking too much for a half-hour's worth of laundry--in this of all cities. But it isn't like I didn't have nine years, eleven months, three weeks, and five days to get this done on time. I'll be ready in twenty-seventeen. [Cavin]