Five

In college, in the spring before the summer before we started dating, Phillip and I went on a camping trip. NOT BY OURSELVES, like the Non-Denominational College Fellowship would have allowed THAT. And not that we would have anyway, because we were both so concerned about making sure no one found out we were interested in each other. OH, NDCF PRIORITIES.

So we went on this camping trip with our bible study. I know plenty of other people in the NDCF found this kind of thing super fun, but not me. First of all, I don't know what the excitement is about camping. Why do people like to "rough" it? For me, roughing it is no room service and a broken pool. I know, I know, I should be kicked out of Seattle right this second for saying such a thing, but whatever. HATE CAMPING. And you know what a person who hates camping just loooooves to do? Go camping with a bunch of Outdoorsy Freaks. That's right. I said it. My bible study, while fun to talk to in your dorm room, was made up of people whose idea of a good time was sleeping on the sidewalk outside REI so they wouldn't miss out on anything good at the garage sale.

(If you have no clue as to what 'REI' is or the 'REI garage sale' then we can be friends. Call me!)

So there I was, forced to spend my weekend with a bunch of Outdoorsy Freaks, sleeping on the ground and playing (good heavens, just the name makes my heart beat faster) Capture The Flag in the dark. (I am an ANXIOUS non-camper. Were they trying to KILL ME?)

But, NDCF priorities and all, I tried to have a good time. I really did. I tried to shove my famous NDCF Bad Attitude inside my sleeping bag and put on a good show. And Phillip was there! That was good, right?

After a not-exactly-restful night's sleep, I blindly crawled out of my tent to look around. My glasses were around somewhere... I found them and shoved them on my face and saw Phillip across the campfire, giving me a funny look. "Oh God," I thought, wondering what I must look like. I felt around for a sweatshirt and yanked it over my head, hoping it would also smooth out my sticky-up butch haircut. "WHAT?" I said, when he was still staring.

"Nothing!" I couldn't tell if he was confused or nervous or what. So I grabbed my toothbrush and attempted to hold my head high while I went off in search of "bathrooms".

Much much later he told me that when I poked my head out of the sleeping bag, he looked over at me and had a feeling, or a vision, or maybe just a thought: we're on a camping trip and our kids are still sleeping and my wife just woke up.

Of course I thought this was hilarious because HA, like I will EVER take our family camping.

Sometime that same spring all the bible study folks were hanging out in my dorm room (since I lived with our Fearless Leader and, being upperclassmen, we'd learned how to take our beds apart and install lofts, making room for couches and chairs and coffee tables underneath.) I had one of those pillows with arms, like this:

I was sitting against it, trying to get comfortable to do some homework. One of the guys in my study was all, "Did you know that's called a 'husband' pillow?" Which everyone thought was very funny. Because we were in the NDCF and afraid to talk about things like husbands.

Phillip said, "But that makes sense. Because you hug it and lean against it and kick it around, just like a husband." And everyone laughed some more because ha ha, Phillip, you are so funny. Except I was sitting there having my own little feeling/vision/thought: my husband's right there.

Sure, I liked Phillip. I had for an embarrassingly long time. But the thought of dating was enough to make me lose my appetite. I wasn't even THINKING about getting married. I mean, maybe when I was THIRTY. You know, OLD ENOUGH. So WHERE DID THAT THOUGHT COME FROM?

We got married five years ago tomorrow, a month before my twenty-fourth birthday. I have a very hard time remembering what life was like before I had Phillip to hug and lean against and kick around.   

We went to our friend's wedding last weekend. We felt like Old Married People. Who are also unflatteringly pregnant and nervous that their kid isn't taking a nap and wondering what time we'll catch the ferry home the next day and discussing houses and kids and What Comes Next with the other Old Married People.

And who obviously did not think much about 1) what they were going to wear and 2) how much they needed a haircut.

Comments

[Jenny Ryan]

Happy Anniversary! :)

(Ours is the next day-12 for us.)

[ccr in MA]

I am With You on the whole camping thing. I totally identified with a character in a book who said that her idea of rustic was a claw-foot tub and a patchwork quilt on the bed.

Happy anniversary!

[Carrie]

Happy anniversary! You guys make a cute couple.

I'm with you on the camping thing. I may even be worse, since I get nervous if I have to leave the city and its nice pavement. I see no point in interacting with dirt and such.

That being said, I think I have to go camping this summer. But I'm going to try to change that plan, if possible.

Have a great anniversary!

[Ellen]

I have a pillow like that! But I always called it a boyfriend pillow, because that's what I heard in my moralless university. (Better than a one-night-stand pillow? That doesn't sound very supportive.)

[Lisa]

HATE CAMPING. I was one of those who avoided group camping outings in college for the above mentioned reasons but also because, hello, they surprise you with an alarming number of outside-in-the-dark-woods type games, most of them involving shaving cream. YUCK, and the scary dark woods. And did I mention, YUCK?

Hooray for premonitions! You two look so happy and comfortable together. Happy 5th anniversary!

[Lisa]

Also, REI? I have no idea what that is.

[ashley]

CONGRATS!!

I threw up the first time I camped. True story. I was a junior in college. It was traumatizing.

You guys are cute.

[Jenny Ryan]

PS-Am I still allowed to read your blog if I reveal that we have an REI membership and sometimes get a dividend check?

(Not because of ME, you understand, but because my husband is an Eagle Scout and was brainwashed into believing the myth of The Great Outdoors.)

[Wickedly Scarlett]

Oh happy birthday you two!! Also, this brought up fond memories of the camping trip I went on as a freshman, just because Colby was going to be there--I don't think he had any romantic husbandly visions though!

[Becky]

Aww, you look adorable. Congratulations on the anniversary!
:) Becky
http://www.stinkylemsky.typepad.com/

[Liz]

Ah providence - we cannot ignore thee. Happy anniversary.

[Lindsay]

Happy early anniversary! :o)

Also, seriously, what is REI?

And my idea of camping is staying in a log cabin in the woods, but said cabin must have a bathroom (WITH A SHOWER), a refrigerator and a stove. I did this once. I found it to be fun. I was told it was not camping -- camping involved sleeping on the ground in a sleeping bag. I was assured it was fun. It sounds like being homeless to me.

[Charlotte]

Happy Anniversary!

I hate camping, too! It rained EVERY SINGLE TIME my Girl Scout troop went camping. We could be in the middle of a drought, but if the Girl Scouts went camping, it rained.

[Lindsay]

Way to go on five years. I am taking my husband on his first ever camping trip tomorrow. There will be no shortage of luxuries or booze in the trailer, but there he is, negotiating with me just exactly what time in the afternoon we will go out there and when we will come back, what we will eat for food, what are we going to do and whhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiine. You people are crazy says I: campfire plus people plus smores plus hotdogs plus bieres is a good time. Have an awesome weekend!

[Manda]

Happy Anniversary! My husband LOVES camping/backpacking/getting dirty and I'm also in the "what, no room service?" boat with you. I'm fine camping for like 2 days but then I'm totally over sleeping on the ground and smelling like campfire. So now that we're married I let my husband not shave on his day off. Am I not SO NICE? BAH!

[Kate P]

REI-obsessed people, that is too funny. Happy anniversary to a very cute couple!!!

[The Sojourner]

"And my idea of camping is staying in a log cabin in the woods, but said cabin must have a bathroom (WITH A SHOWER), a refrigerator and a stove. I did this once. I found it to be fun. I was told it was not camping -- camping involved sleeping on the ground in a sleeping bag. I was assured it was fun. It sounds like being homeless to me."

So true. The Boyfriend said yesterday, "We should go camping!" (after we are married, of course, so that we can go by ourselves) and I said, "Okay, but there must be actual plumbing available." I will not go in a Port-a-John even for love.

[lee]

oh man now you are making ME feel old. this weather definitely reminds me of your reception, though.

oh, and i think that camping trip is the one where i slept under a tarp held up with rope and sticks, jerry-rigged up by the most bear gryllsish guy in our group. and it rained.

[The Sojourner]

Oh, and Happy Anniversary!

Silly me, I got so distracted by the camping that I forgot--and then my internet flaked out. Silly internet.

[Tara]

Happy anniversary (late!) Ironically I always knew of it as a boyfriend pillow too, despite the fact that I went to a freakishly conservative college. Go figure.

Cute picture of you guys!