How Do You Measure a Year in the Life? (Happy Second Anniversary to Us!)

Two years ago today, Mike & I said "I do" right here in Cleveland, OH, surrounded by our friends & family & so many of our favorite people in the whole, wide world.

We signed our custom-made ketubah & stood beneath a chuppah held by our wedding party, topped with a tablecloth embroidered by my great-grandmother.

We exchanged the vows we'd written ourselves, & our friend & rabbi declared us husband & wife, in accordance with Ohio law & Jewish law.

We ate pierogis & drank "felix felicis" & danced to everything from Ray LaMontagne to the Beach Boys to Montel Jordan to Justin Bieber.

And then we started the rest of our lives together as a married couple.

It's cliche, but it's true: Marriage can be really freaking hard.

Marriage is thinking about another person's wants & needs at least as much as you think about your own, if not more.

Marriage is having a perpetual roommate, even on those days when all you want it to hibernate from the world & be alone.

Marriage is sometimes not getting what the other person doesn't get, as if you should be able to read one another's minds simply by virtue of spending so much time together.

Marriage is not saying the mean things. Mean is talking it out before one of you falls asleep. Marriage is doing the chores you don't care that much about. Marriage is compromise & creativity.

Marriage can be really freaking hard, but it's also, for the most part, extraordinarily easy.

Because marriage is spending your life with your best friend.

Marriage is a slumber party every single night.

Marriage is having a built-in person to support you (& vice versa).

Marriage is charting a path for your future & knowing you won't be alone in it.

Marriage is imagining growing old - & not being afraid of it as long as you're together.

Marriage is knowing your wife's coffee order & surprising your husband with pho & standing side by side at his grandmother's grave & not even being that mad that he's snoring because you secretly think it's sort of adorable.

Marriage is fun & honest & open & wonderful & normal & so freaking joyful.

And I never thought I could do it, but here I am, loving it.

Happy two years of marriage, Mike Kaput. Here's to many, many more.