I Did Not Marry My Best Friend

15 years ago today I did NOT marry my best friend. You read that right.

-The man I married didn't know my ups and downs, my neurotic tendencies, and he didn't know when to just go with them the way a best friend does.

-The man I married didn't know how quiet I get when I'm upset, so he couldn't badger me to tell him what's wrong the way a best friend does.

-The man I married couldn't encourage his best friend to write, because he hadn't yet learned how much I love to do so.

-The man I married didn't know how to hold my hand through heartache, or how to hold my gaze in joy.

-We didn't have kids, so I couldn't admire the way he protects them, and engages them, and he couldn't admire the way I do the same.

-The man I married didn't know how to tell me the things that bother him, or how to work through things that bother me.

-I had never seen the man I married sing in his off-key voice just to soothe his baby, so I couldn't completely adore that.

-The guy I married didn't play guitar, so he couldn't be patient and teach me so we could play together.

-The man I married didn't know that I like to dance, so he couldn't muster up the courage to dance at least one dance at every wedding just so his best friend could be happy.

-The man I married didn't know how much I love tea, so he didn't bring me a cup every morning just to be nice.

-I didn't know the man I married liked cheap beer, so I couldn't tease him about it the way buddies do.

-The man I married didn't know that I like cheap EVERYTHING, because I'm what my father liked to call thrifty.

-I didn't know the guy I married would become Clark Griswold, making each of our family vacations a trip into a magical land.

-The guy I married didn't value my keen sense of direction, not yet having gotten lost so many times in Disneyland.

-The man who married me did make me laugh...but he didn't know the way I can be "air-tickled" and that puns make me giddy the way besties know.

-The man I married couldn't lean on me as much as I lean on him, the way best friends do.

-The man I married didn't know how to share things with me, the deepest secrets that best friends share.

The man I married was not my best friend.  He was only a shadow of the man he would become.  Today I AM married to my best friend, my confidante, my love.   Happy 15 years, baby, and thank you for becoming my best friend.