one year later - 07/07/07

It's really hard to believe, but a milestone day is here. It was one year ago, I met Rick on a blinddate at a baseball game (see post About a Boy). Ironically, our one year anniversary falls on the busiest wedding day of the century.

Since then we've had many significant milestones - met his mom, he moved to the Eastside, visited his family in Minnesota, he took a permanent job (instead of continuing to freelance), he moved in, has met all of my brothers and sisters, we traveled for three weeks together. Amazing what a difference a year makes.

Before I get into what we did to celebrate our one year anniversary, I'll preempt by stating what we did not do. :) You can breathe, no surprise engagement. Not that I thought there would be, but I keep getting questions, so more to put the questions to rest.

We did spend the day with our friends Tami and Tom out on their boat on the Columbia River. We'd originally talked about perhaps taking the dogs down to Westport Beach for the weekend, but when the invitation to go boating on the river, came up, we thought that a much more fun option.

It was an early departure time given that it takes two hours to drive out to Vantage to the boat ramp. It was tough, but we both were able to get ourselves out of bed to get ready. Before I could wipe the sleep from my eyes, Rick wished me a happy anniversary. In that moment, I had almost forgotten.

We met up with Tami and Tom to head over to the river. Happy to catch up with them since we hadn't seen them well before we left for our vacation to Eastern Europe. Lots of stories from each of us to keep us busy chatting all the way there.

Before I knew it, the boat was launched and we were off. I'd put on ample sunscreen to ensure that I didn't walk away from this day with any regrets. The wind from the speed of the boat, almost made it chilly. You could feel it go from warm air to cold air to warm air again and again.

Tom was brave enough to venture out into the water for some water skiing. Tami was boat captain taking the turns so that Tom could have some fun out on the skis. Rick and I sat up front soaking up sun and taking in the view of the jagged cliffs along the river.

I wasn't about to get in the water to ski. I've only waterskiied once in my life, when I was 16. Terrifying experience that was captured on a video camera -- the tape hopefully destroyed by now. Having lived most of my life with contacts, I never really felt comfortable doing water sports. Now that I've had lasik, I guess I don't really have that as an excuse any more. Rick has carpal tunnel and so the intensity of holding onto the rope would just exacerbate his condition.

Tami took a dip in the water, and confirmed to me that it was indeed very cold. Done, I would not be revisiting skiing this time around. I was quite happy sitting where I was. We headed up the river some more, which lulled me into a nice, relaxing nap while on the bow of the boat.

We probably spent a good three or so hours out there, and returned to the dock only to sit there and wait while some gumby jet skiers hogged the boat ramp while they dinked around with their watercraft. Move it! We were finally able to get the trailer and get the boat out and prepped for the return trip home. We had a wonderful time just chillin' with Tami and Tom on their boat.

We came home and got cleaned up. I brainstormed something low key we could do for dinner and came up with sushi. Rick had been wanting to try out Blue Ginger Korean BBQ & Sushi, so we headed over there.

Sadly, the sushi was well below par. Never again. Expensive, not fresh and not tasty. Oh well, at least the rest of the day was pleasant.

No gifts, no cards. Just a low key day and my own mental trip down memory lane of all the great things we've done together in the last twelve months. And I have to say it. With all of the hype of the 07-07-07 wedding dates, I'm really glad we kept our special day on the down low.