The Few, The Proud, The Oblivious

Happy Valentine's Day me lovers.

When Dan and I decided to get married (after six years of being together unhitched), we chose a somewhat random date based on our work schedules as much as anything else. We planned to go to Queens Borough Hall and get married there, so there was no need for party plans or what-have-you. We lined up our one witness, as required. I made a dress for the occasion - a deep blue colour. Like all wedding dresses, I still have it but have never worn it again.

New York has a rule that you must apply for your marriage license 24 hours ahead of time, so we dutifully headed over to Queens Borough Hall the day before to do the paperwork where we were greeted by a huge crowd of people lined up to get married. We were shocked! Who knew everyone was getting married in Queens? It was a madhouse but we managed to get our paperwork done and escape with our lives.

Being among the few, the proud, the prompt, we decided that we had better get ourselves (and our witness) to Borough Hall the next day right as it opened so as to avoid the crush of hopeful, young lovers determined to join their lives in matrimony. We were on the F train bright and early, being heavily photo documented by our one witness, who is a photographer. He included a shot of Dan holding up the day's headline, which was something about Saddam Hussein oddly enough: this was about the time of our conflict with Iraq - the first one, that is. We hot-footed it to the waiting area only to find it almost totally empty. Victory!

Then, as we say on the north shore of Massachusetts, light dawns over Marblehead. The day before was February 14th - Valentine's Day. It wasn't some communal hysteria that was causing a mass movement of marriage, it was that everyone wanted to get married on Valentine's Day. Safe to say that February 15th is a pretty quiet day over at Borough Hall.

We still laugh at our being the only couple in Queens who were totally oblivious about Valentine's Day. So, unlike the hundreds of couples who are celebrating 18 years of marriage today, we will be celebrating it TOMORROW.