Six years and one day ago...

Even though I didn't remember to write about our anniversary ON our anniversary (at least not in my blog; it made it to Facebook), we remembered to celebrate, and that's what counts.

Looking at us now in comparison to six years ago...we haven't done too badly. A little more grey hair for me, and I'm sure Musical Daddy would have more if we could actually see it. His beard has stayed the same. I'm glad to say that we weigh about the same as we did then. And that's not bad considering I've had two kids.

How we feel is another matter. We definitely feel older, even if we don't look as though we've aged more than the 6 years we have (although the kid at the "guess your age" game guessed that I was 37! Rat!). Children age us; a child with a chronic illness ages us even more. When we got married, Musical Daddy was 29 and turned 30 later that summer. I was 23 and turned 24 a few weeks later. Conveniently, I also changed jobs for the upcoming schoolyear, so there was no new name to get the kids to learn

I'm not the type of person who expects a big deal to be made over things like birthdays, anniversaries, and that day before Cheap Chocolate Day...what's that one called again? I don't consider my husband to be an insensitive clod if he doesn't read my mind and just KNOW that I want a certain gift. Sometimes I wish he'd be more decisive when it comes to choosing how to celebrate something or even where to go for dinner, but after we get over the initial decision-making process, it doesn't matter a bit what we do.

Snaps to him for suggesting that we do Dave & Buster's in the evening on Saturday to kick off the celebration (in typical Jewish fashion, the holiday starts the night before). We had a great time. We had dinner there--the food is typical "casual dining" food in that type of atmosphere. Then we played games. Dave & Buster's is a little like Chuck E Cheese for grownups. Some locations (like the one where we were) allow kids. Some don't. I hadn't been there before, partly because I didn't like the prospect of playing games in a smoky room. Fortunately, there is no smoking indoors in public places here anymore.

We played Skee Ball. We bombed "Pump It Up" which is like Dance Dance Revolution. Musical Daddy played a few shooting games. They had Guitar Hero, which we played together, but it was pretty expensive in terms of credits and you only get to play one song. We played a few racing games, and we played a Wheel of Fortune game. Nothing complicated, just spinning for tickets. Like Chuck E Cheese, you win tickets and can trade for prizes, so we got some dinky little toys for the kids.

After D&B's, we got some frozen yogurt at Razzy Fresh. We got some for my parents too. It's a neat place. Customers serve themselves and pay by the ounce. They have several flavors and lots of yummy toppings, including a nice variety of fresh fruit.

And if that wasn't enough fun, we did Kennywood yesterday! Of course, I already wrote about that.

Tomorrow my sisters turn 25. Next week, Meatball turns 1.

A separate post will hopefully follow about this, but I read Freakonomics today. If you haven't read it, I recommend it. The subtitle is "The Hidden Side of Everything." I enjoyed the various explorations in this book because they centered around questioning everything, which I like to do. You know, question everything--including questioning everything. The authors didn't believe that there were many simple answers...and if the answers were simple, they weren't the ones you expect.

The authors even referenced Steven Pinker and The Blank Slate, of whom my therapist frequently speaks. Steven Pinker makes the case for infants not being born a blank slate at all, but rather, everyone is the way that they are just because, and in the argument of nature vs. nurture, it's mostly nature. MOSTLY. Not that damage can't be done, and not that experiences can't make improvements, but that people come out that way.

I have not read The Blank Slate, so I'm not sure how much of this I buy, but it's certainly a different way of seeing things--your parents didn't screw you up as much as you think; you just ended up that way.

Anyhow, I'll have to think more about Freakonomics later.

If you will recall my new friend on the other side of the state, I'm less worried about sending her milk right away because I was able to make a connection for her to someone in South Jersey who so graciously offered to share her stash. I'm still going to work on the milk but I'll wait until she has the freezer space to send it to her. Or, depending on when we make a trek out east, I'll just wait until then and hand-deliver it.