OK, any second now my marriage is supposed to fall apart...

Today, I have been married to my wife for two years - and it has been great.

When I announced my engagement, I endured the regular barrage of "jokes" that married men tell engaged men, such as:

"You'll always get the last word - yes, ma'am!"

These jokes are always accompanied with a clap on the back and uproarious laughter from the person telling the joke - and no one else. (Does this person realize that they have just broadcasted the failure of their own marriage to the entire room?)

Some single people at work told me that the whole thing was a mistake because married people didn't have sex. (I wonder where all of those kids at church are coming from...) Others told me that a pre-nuptial was critical - since they didn't think I could possibly have chosen a trustworthy woman. (Without a pre-nuptial agreement, how would we know how to divide up the cat toys and action figures? Seriously, I'm not Paul McCartney.)

After the wedding, I listened to everyone's prophecy discerning when "the honeymoon would be over." After a few months of happy married life the "wiser" men would tell me that "this was when it started for them" - which meant Christine and I were going to start fighting and would watch our happiness fall apart under the stress of marriage. (For some reason, people think it's normal to tell you these things.)

After one year, the prophets amended their visions - now that we had gotten through the first year we would start to hate each other and it would all break down. And they still thought this was funny.

Wrong again, Nostradmus. Christine and I still don't fight about anything. (OK, there was that one time we were discussing the role of metanarratives in post-modernity and we may have gotten upset at each other - but stuff like that is really important!) While the "wise" naysayers struggle within their marriages and smugly tell me I should expect the same, I remain happy in my marriage.

What makes people in bad relationships consider themselves experts on mine? Christine and I only need to look at our own respective parents for good examples of how to make a marriage work. With our parents as strong leaders and examples for us we are able to know how it should work.

As for the rest of you, the cynics who insist that my marriage will fall apart just like yours, I recommend you stop scrutinizing the Jones' and figure out why you blew it in your own marriage. I'll be here if you have any questions.

1st Anniversary - Paper

It's been one year. One perfect year. And, depending on who you are, it's going to get better, or worse. Or stay about the same.

Anyway, today marks my one year anniversary of being married to Christine. It's been great. We only dated for 5 months before the engagement and some people were totally caught off-guard when it happened, but we knew it was the right way to go. I knew it was what I wanted the first time I saw her. I'm not usually the sappy type (I think it's boring when Old Yeller dies) but I fell for Christine the moment I saw her and every morning when I see her beautiful eyes I know that I am lucky.

We spent our weekend in Denton, TX; a mini-vacation where we checked out the interesting stores and spent time at a nice hotel. It's tradition to give a gift of paper for the first anniversary, this year it took the form of hotel room tickets. (Here's a list of anniversary gifts for every year, in case you are interested.)

Some have told us that the first year is the hardest, others say it is the easiest. When I tell people that we don't fight, people often say, 'you will' very smugly. I suspect that they are jealous of my relationship. Either way, the lesson here is that this marriage thing is not the same for everyone, but by working hard and putting the other's needs before our own we have had a very fun and fulfilling year. I know that I am a better person for it.