I can make something simple very complicated in seconds, like plans for last weekend.
Yesterday David and I celebrated 29 years of marriage. We hadn’t been to Asheville 
together in two years, and we thought it would be fun to go back and do a brewery tour.
And then I tried to make it complicated:
“What if we invite our Guilford College friends in the area to go on the tour? Maybe Karrie will come up from Greensboro! I already spent New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day with her this year, so why not our anniversary too?”
“What if I invite my friends from the retreat I did near Asheville in the fall?”
“What if we invite Leslie (David’s work wife) and Marni to meet us in Asheville for the weekend?”
Wow! We could see a lot of fun people and you could meet some of the friends I made in the fall at the retreat. This could be great!
Our history of spending our anniversary with other people isn’t without precedence. Twenty-nine years ago we met David’s mother and grandmother for dinner in Charleston while we were on our honeymoon and they were doing a historical architecture tour. And last year we spent the day with Ogeechee Riverkeeper members before heading to Savannah.
David was thinking this trip would be a vacation without a long itinerary (he judges a good vacation by the number of naps he gets to take). He offered a compromise: we spend the weekend with Leslie and Marni OR we do the beer tour/meet friends afterwards. But not both.
That was tough. After all, in 2013 I had already spent New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day with girlfriends (including cooking dinner for David’s work wife Leslie). I was batting 1000.
But I came full circle to the choice I made 29 years ago. I wanted to spent a four-day weekend with David, and did not tag on our friends.
We didn’t run into anyone we knew while we were away. If we had maybe we would have had a beer and a short visit. Instead, we only had each other’s company while we are away.
And after 29 years, that was all the company I wanted.
