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Wednesday, May 10, 2000

Our Seventh Anniversary

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Attila and I are celebrating our seventh anniversary today. These have been the best years of my life; I hope they have been as good for him as they have been for me. We had been friends without a thought of romance until one sunny Sunday afternoon. We were both in attendance at a backyard BBQ when suddenly we "saw" one another. Our relationship moved very quickly from that point. The time has flown, I could almost believe that it has been seven months rather than seven years since we decided to become a family.

Attila, "The Teenager", and I celebrated the day by ordering a pizza and renting the video "The Straight Story", directed by David Lynch. Richard Farnsworth is a favorite of mine; this film tapped his considerable talents. The story follows the progress of a 73-year-old man on a riding mower traveling over 350 miles of highway to visit his brother. It is a low-key and very powerful movie. I am seldom moved to tears by films, but this one had me sniffling.

"The Teenager" found the movie too slow moving. I think she had difficulty relating to the perspectives of the older adults in the film. First she fell asleep, then she woke up, and left the room. The next thing we knew she was chatting with her friends on the Internet. Attila and I were alone at last on our anniversary.

Our relationship began in the heart of the child rearing years. "The Teenager" was nine years old; the eldest was 17 years old. From the very beginning, we have been more focused on parenting concerns than on each other. There have been difficult times over the last seven years. I am very glad to have faced those times with Attila at my side. It will not be long now before it is just the two of us, for the very first time. We are looking forward to that experience.

I have decided to redesign my web site. Redesign seems a bit of a pretension since there was/is no design to start with. However, my intention was to write and to provide myself with a place to write. The web site has served me well in this regard. Now that I have settled into somewhat of a routine with the writing aspect of the site, I plan to turn my attention to the element of design. Changes will begin to appear in stages. The first change was implemented today; the home page for the site is up and operational. Have a look if you like; any comments are welcome. There are more changes to come.