Anniversary

Our 6th wedding anniversary was February 17th, right in the middle of Solnar. The day after, we sort of realized that it had gone past, and decided that we were no longer newlyweds.

I decided at the time that I would try to make up for it, even though neither one of us were really that disturbed. The best occasion I could think of was March 14th, the 7th anniversary of the day I proposed to Horyon and she accepted. In some ways, March was busier than the months Horyon was working. She was studying with the tailor, as well as with a woman who taught her how to do clever sewing things with ribbons, mostly involving making flowers and plants and stuff. Some of it is really adorable, and it will really add value to her girly dresses.

By the way, we settled on a name for her label:

Little Hand Made

I thought it carried the right proportions of cuteness, description of the product, and humor to be successful. I Googled it and found no other company with that name, which was kind of a relief, as Horyon had already ordered the labels. It would be just my luck if it were registered as some sort of maid-outfit porn site.

Anyway, back to the anniversary. On the 14th, Horyon knew that I had something planned. A couple of weeks before I had asked if she liked surprises. When she said yes, I told her that was good, because I had one coming up for her.

This, of course, drove her completely crazy. I refused to divulge any other information. She pestered me constantly, and I eventually broke down and told her that we were going to have dinner together, and that I had arranged for her parents to take care of Maxine for the evening. I congratulated her for figuring out the surprise, and she was satisfied with that.

Early that evening, around 5:00, we started walking down the beach. She was still pestering me about where we were going to eat, but she thought she had the whole thing figured out. We walked at a leisurely pace for about half an hour, then I led her into the Hotel Homers. We had been wondering about this place for some time. For me, it was a toss up between whether it was a Greek Mythology place or a Simpsons place. Perhaps some combination of the two, with Homer Simpson lashed to the mast while beautiful maidens offer him donuts.

We ate at the Chinese restaurant in the hotel. The food was excellent, even given that dinner for the both of us cost more than $100. Very fresh ingredients, prepared in what looked like ridiculously small proportions, which nevertheless managed to leave us both feeling quite full by the end of the meal.

Afterwards I suggested that we should take the elevator to the Sky Lounge at the top of the hotel for a couple of drinks. When we got in the elevator I pressed the 10th floor button, but Horyon didn't see. She only noticed that the 19th and 20th floor buttons hadn't been pressed. She actually felt a bit embarrassed when another woman got into the elevator going up. She was a bit confused when I pulled her out at the 10th floor, and even more so when I went right up to the door to a room, unlocked it and opened it.

Inside the room there were seven roses spread out on the bed, a bottle of champagne in the fridge, and a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake melting on the table.

Rob had done his homework.

I'm not that good at keeping a secret. For starters, it's my policy to not lie. I don't go around mentioning every true thing I know, but I don't like to tell people things that aren't true. On the other hand, I love teasing Horyon. I had involved Horyon's parents and her sewing teacher in on the secret, and both of them had played their parts as well as could be expected. The last couple of days I was sure she would figure it out, but the dinner plan sufficiently obfuscated the real plan.

We had a lovely night, alone together. A reminder of the high points of this marriage. The next couple of days we had to deal with visa stuff, multiple calls to the IRS in America, and a struggle to find a working fax machine. But that is an entry for another day.