40 years and counting

Sunday was my parent's 40th wedding anniversary. I had forgotten completely, until my sister called me to remind me. My parents are not people who make a big fuss about their anniversary. As a matter of fact, I still to this day do not know how my parents met and trust me my sister have tried. We've plied my parents, relatives, and their friends with copious amounts of liquor with no results. When we were younger we thought my parents were spies. In my teen years, we thought my mom got knocked up by accident. All theories were crushed when one summer my parents left me and my sister in California with all the keys to the safety deposit box.

Because I am a brat, I left the following message on their answering machine. "Hola mis padres. ET#1 here. Happy Anniversary. I hope you are doing something special today, but I am sure you are just at church. What are you going to do with no Todai around? Well, at least try to get along today. I love you both ... equally as much."

(Todai is an all you can eat buffet my dad loves because 1) he can get the senior discount 2) it is sushi and other random asian foods. My mom is not a fan, but tolerates it.)

According to my sister, my parents spent the afternoon at their korean church. But instead of going out, they spent the rest of the day home. They cracked open a bottle of wine and grilled kalbi out on our porch.

3000 miles away, I imagine my dad starting the fire. My mom yelling at him that the fire is too high. Then the two of the crowding over the barbecue telling each other to move all the meat around properly. My mom gets smoke in her eyes so my dad yells at her to just sit down as he finishes grilling the meat. My mom runs into the kitchen to get a london broil because the fire is too good to waste. And the two of them eating outside with their wine laughing about something that happened at church or their favorite korean drama. I imagine that it got dark, but the two of them lingered outside until it was too cold for them to tolerate.

In my 32 years of knowing them, I never witnessed any romantic moments between the two. Hell, I have never seen sit on the same couch. The nicest thing my dad ever said about my mom was "You know, ET#1, you are lucky. Your mom is okay looking. When your boyfriends meet her, they know you will not be ugly in the future." Yet, despite all of their lack of romance, I know there has always been love (that is minus 1985-1988, but that is a story for another day).

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad. Here's to 40 more years of insanity.