3 decades of bliss!

As many of you already know, thanks to my 72 hours of action on Social Media, Joyce and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary on Tuesday August 17th, 2021. If you care to do the math, that means she finally caved under my relentless pressure on Saturday August 17th, 1991. I know it's cliche, but I can remember so many things from that stretch of hot and steamy summer days, many, many years ago. It's also cliche to say that so much has changed, yet so much has stayed the same. 

I always have thoughts ... this is no different.

Joyce and I weren't immediately destined for a life of marital bliss when we first were introduced way back in 1984. I was an undergrad at Queen's, pretty full of myself as a varsity football starter who was fresh off an epic season where we lost to the University of Calgary Dinos in the Vanier Cup. My incredible parents were footing the tuition bill for my post-secondary education so it was up to me to foot the living expenses, costs made all the more extravagant by fully experiencing the thrills of uni-life outside of the classroom. I had managed to fool the owners of the Firehall Restaurant into hiring me first on the door, then on the waitstaff. Joyce and I worked together and quickly discovered that we enjoyed the opportunity to experience the Kingston nightlife with a small group of others that also worked there. We were a tight group, and justified the after-work festivities as just desserts since we supplied the "grease" for so many other's merriment. 

As those university years progressed, our little restaurant slash bar became a go-to site for downtown Kingston revellers, thanks partly to the brilliance of it's management to add features like "Margaritaville", the cities first Mexican-themed outdoor patio, and in all bias, the incredible staff that was assembled. One of my character flaws is a difficulty with names ... I often have to "eat crow" and ask people to remind me ... but my wonderful brain supplied me with an uncanny recall of faces, an ability that coupled with connecting their libation of choice, meant that people loved the fact that I would bring them a drink just seconds after they arrived, without them even asking. Joyce was a cutie-patootie (still is, actually), and charmed them with her great smile and effervescent personality. 

Together we were quite successful in separating people from the contents of their wallets.

The more we worked and socialized together, the stronger our friendship grew, and we both acknowledged that there was more to it than just enjoying the nightlife together, a budding romance slowly blossoming. Our first actual date was in 1986, and the rest is history, as the saying goes. We spent a lot of time together, often arranging a few sleepovers complete with blanket forts, but finally succumbed to inevitable in 1988, sharing four walls first out in the townships, then a unique little house in the midtown area. By the time that I had come to grips with my desires for an education career in the longterm, we were pretty confident that our relationship was built to last, and in 1989, we bid farewell to Kingston, moving to Holland Landing while I attended Teacher's College at a satellite campus in Newmarket. That was the setting where my nervous engagement question asked was greeted with a teary, "Of course!" 

We were determined to do things our own way ... still are, actually ... and we quickly arranged the details for a ceremony in my parent's Sunnidale Road backyard, followed by a reception at the old Georgian College Conference Centre. The GCCC was the coupe of the century because it featured Lord Simcoe's original cottage, Marden Lodge, where we housed all of the "younger" folk and fitted with enough snacks and drinks to keep the festivities going well past the 10:00 pm end of the reception. I will tell you that the beginning of our official lives together couldn't have had a better beginning. 

In truth, Joyce and I have been blessed. We bought our first home, the one we recently sold (see previous posts), just weeks before the wedding, and once the confetti had settled, we got busy creating our life together. Two years later in 1993, life changed significantly with the birth of child numero uno, Maddison Leigh, and then finalized the "Millionaire's Family" in 1996, with the addition of Keaton Lorne. I was working stupid hours ... by choice ... because I hadn't yet seen the light and was still in the elementary panel, having slowly been "promoted" each year before settling into the Grade 7/8 life, and coaching 5-6 teams each year. When we were married, and had discussions over full dinner plates about how we envisioned our lives playing out, we quickly discovered a joint desire to make a go of having a full time parent at home with the kids. Since I had the career with benefits-pension, and because she harboured a deep-seeded desire to be a SuperMom, we agreed that Joyce would (wo)man the ship with it's cherubic, busy crew. 

Those were some Uber active years!

I was always 99% sure I had chosen a great life-mate, but it was pushed over the brim when we had discussions about making the leap-of-faith into the secondary panel, partly because it would mean I would lose seniority, but mostly because changing full stock was scary, a fear that quickly escalated thanks to the Harris Years' strike. Once the political turmoil subsided, I dug into high school life deeper than a tick, the kids ran Joyce off her feet, and we often felt like the proverbial "ships in the night". To this day, I'm amazed that we negotiated the stormy seas of our lives through raising little athletes, teaching, Central coaching, Georgian College coaching, provincial team coaching, GBSSA Executive, OFSAA Executive ... Oh, and occasionally finding ourselves enjoying each other's embrace in those rare moments of quiet and calm, usually drifting off on the couch in the early evening.

As the kids grew into amazing young people, as I finally learned how to say NO, as life settled significantly, and as we acquired the maturity of age, we found that those turbulent years had actually steeled our love, and we quite enjoyed each other's attention as we found less and less demands from outside our home. Once the time came that both of our little chicks flown the coop, we re-discovered those love-struck times of oh-so-many years ago, turning our attention to our jointly generated wants and desires. As many of you already know, that wasn't enough, we had to make things even more of a challenge by selling our home of 30 years and moving communities, percolating off all extraneous influences to expose our relationship in it's most pure form. 

I am pleased to announce that things couldn't be any better!

In celebration of our 3 decade milestone, we explored the southwest of Ontario, first taking in the summertime frenzy of Port Stanley with a delicious beachside patio meal at GT's, then a few quiet days in Erieau and Rondo Provincial Park at a quaint little cottage that was most definitely in the truest sense of the word. A bunch of walks and bike rides later, we toasted our longevity over back bacon + egg bagels and a shared Mike's Hard Peach ... we're such party hounds now! HaHaHa!

Here's to the next 30! With both of our parent's families sporting nonagenarians, hopefully our genetics kick in full power! Either way, we'll be in pretty awesome company, and loving every moment!

Happy 30th Sweetheart! I love you more than I can possibly say!