Beginning

The canoe minutes after mortal peril.

Yesterday was Jennifer and my 11th anniversary. Eleven years! In celebration here’s some random stories from our life together:

Our first kiss: Out in the gravel flats by a winding river I waited an hour for a kiss. With a steering wheel in my side. It was worth it.

Driving to Anchorage: We used to live in Fairbanks. In the summer every so often one of us would say ‘Let’s go to Anchorage this weekend!’. (For those who don’t live in Alaska, Anchorage is about 360 miles from Fairbanks.) And so Friday night after work we would jump in the rickety old grey car with $50 and head to Anchorage. That’s $50 for everything…gas, food, etc. round trip.

At night we’d sleep in the car either at ‘safe’ parks or at rest stops outside of the city. During the day we’d wander Anchorage or the areas around it. Usually not doing anything in particular just seeing what we could see and getting into long conversations.

Of Course: Next to the Tanana River Jennifer asked me to marry her. We had only been dating for a month or so but there was no hesitation in my answer ‘Of course!’.

Mortal Peril: While exploring new territory our canoe got caught in a strong current that was headed towards a waterfall. We paddled and paddled but couldn’t fight it so I steered us towards shallower water and jumped out so that I could pull the canoe to shore. Jennifer immediately shouted ‘What are you doing?? Don’t leave me!’ She thought that I was abandoning ship and leaving her to float helplessly away.

Homeless On Weekdays: We were teenagers. I was homeless, Jennifer lived in a different town with her mother, and neither of us had a car. This meant that we’d only be able to see each other at most a couple times a month.

The solution? Jennifer decided to stay in the town I lived in during the week (because I had to work) and then I’d stay in the town she lived in on the weekends. Being homeless on weekdays means finding the best and warmest out of the way place to sleep every night. In our area that was the woods in the middle of town, the log cabin type structure sheltering picnic tables in a park, or the dugout in a little league baseball field.

Gollum: Saw Gollum scampering in the woods outside of Juneau one night.

Things we throw when we fight:

Anita -drinks, spaghetti, curry chicken tv dinner, porcelain wizard statue

Jennifer -boot, books, stuffed giraffes, cat (just kidding)

Multicolored Moose: After driving for hundreds of miles on practically no sleep, we started to see multicolored moose shortly before arriving in Anchorage.

Not Like in Alaska: On a trip to Seattle we saw bums fighting in an alley. Then we saw a bunch of crazy people protesting on a streetcorner and yelling ‘Jeeeeesus!!’ and other strange things at random folks passing by. It was awesome. (Blog coming soon.)

Unnerving: In Denali we camped next to a colony of pee eating rabbits.

More Unnerving: We once lived in a house that was taken over by spiders. You didn’t dare sleep without pulling the blanket over your head because in the dark you never knew when a spider was dangling just centimeters from your face, until it landed on you.

Opposite Shifts: During one period early in our relationship Jennifer and I worked jobs with opposite shifts. We hardly ever got to see each other and it started to feel like we were leading seperate lives. So too stay close we got in the habit of writing letters every day and taping them to the door for the other person to find.

A picture from one of my letters to Jennifer.

An excerpt from a letter Jennifer wrote.

Counting Down: It’s been…

11 years

10 weeks apart (total)

9 charity events

8 plane trips

7 computers

6 rings

5 houses

4 cars

3 towns

2 tents

and…
1 porcelain wizard statue

Thanks to Jennifer for helping me write all this. I love you Darling, it’s been an amazing 11 years!