Luggage, penguins, Vonnegut. In other words, an ode to Marriage.

Dallin and I recently celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary. Marrying Dallin is probably the best decision I've made in my life. It ranks right up there with the decision to bid on that 4-piece luggage set at my "Chem Free" high school graduation party. Seriously, 8 years and innumerable trips later, I am still using that luggage....

On our anniversary, I bought Dallin some clothes. This may seem rather unromantic, but Dallin will not buy clothes for himself. I just recently succeeded in convincing him to get rid of a shirt that he has had since his sophomore year of high school.

I also bought a card that had a picture of two penguins on the front. Who doesn't love penguins? When I was a child, one of my favorite movies to watch was a Japanese-Soviet (odd?) produced animated film called The Adventures of Scamper the Penguin.

Stuff that I like about penguins: They share in the responsibilities of parenthood, they're so adorable when they walk, and in some species, the male will search out the smoothest, best-looking rocks/pebbles and present them to the female during courtship. Sweet. And very anthropomorphic.

A couple of months ago, I was reading the book Cat's Cradle. Kurt Vonnegut is Dallin's favorite author, and when I was just a few pages in to the book, he told me, "You and I make up a true duprass"...."What's a duprass?"...."You'll find out." This is what I found out...

A duprass is "a karass composed of only two persons". The two members of a duprass live lives that revolve around each other, and are therefore often married. The members of a duprass die within a week of each other.  A duprass "is a valuable instrument for gaining and developing, in the privacy of an interminable love affair, insights that are queer but true." It "is also a sweetly conceited establishment."

Dallin is such a sentimental fool.

I won't attempt to rival Vonnegut, but in the past 4 years, here's what I have especially loved about our marriage and about Dallin...

Road trips together. Pillow talk into the early hours of the morning. Deep conversations. Simple conversations. Being absolutely silly and myself and not having to worry if he thinks I'm too weird (well, he knows I'm too weird, but he still loves me.) Encouraging one another. The way he dedicates himself in everything he does--law school, church assignments, work, life. Traveling together (he is the perfect companion, and he lets me have the aisle seat.) He speaks Spanish beautifully. He is always patient in helping me with my own Spanish. The way he can converse thoroughly on topics ranging from Gothic architecture to mortgage-backed securities to Star Wars to 20th century Abstract Expressionism...(though I admit, I usually tune him out when it's mortgage-backed securities) Always having someone I can talk to about the books I'm reading. Planning for the future. Going to the batting cages for date night (sometimes they're closed, so we get ice cream instead.) He always turns the lights out and locks the door at night before we go to bed. He buys me chocolate---and when it starts to become a serious problem, I'm sure he will be the one to organize and stage an intervention.

I think this list really could go on forever, so it's a good thing that I have forever with him. In short, Dallin, and to quote the Bard, "I do love nothing in the world so well as you."