IMO IMO IMO IMO: Anniversary

Sometimes in a relationship you wake up one morning and the person you're dating (or, gasp, married to) is all smiley and kisses you and says, "I love you." You return the favor, probably, because you're nice and you really like this person, and it was a pleasant way to wake up. And then you go about your day. Sometimes, even though you woke up so nicely, and nothing more has transpired between you, later on that person will be pissed off at you. If that happens, there's a chance it's because you forgot that that day was your anniversary, and you blew it by not acknowledging it. The reason the OTHER person didn't say anything was that they were testing you to see if you actually REMEMBERED that it was your anniversary, and somehow that makes them not accountable for not saying it to YOU.

Anniversaries are a nice thing, though. They are a time for people to congratulate themselves, one another, or other people, for accomplishing something: spending time with someone else. Even if that someone else is themselves (after all, many languages refer to one's own birthday as an Anniversary). It is hard work to maintain a relationship for months, years, decades. Few make it work. For a new couple, there is nothing more interesting, surprising, confounding, and beautiful than the one-year anniversary.

Last night, I dug into the depths of my Gmail to make sure that all along, Gmail has been archiving my e-mails. And I went back to the very first e-mail I had. It was from Aki. Aki is the longest and, arguably, the only consistent reader of this blog. And I knew I'd started writing it around the time that she and I started spending time together. Which made me wonder... when did I start writing this blog?

Meaningful coincidences happen to me all the time, and so it was no surprise to me to discover that I'd chosen to determine the birthday of the 'copter on the eve of that very day. That's right. Today, January 23, 2008, is the one-year anniversary/birthday of the IMOCOPTER! And Aki, bless her, has been reading since DAY ONE!

So as gifts, first I offer this DeadChinchilla post. Back when I first told her about my blogging, Aki e-mailed me back after reading EVERY SINGLE POST, saying she'd fallen in love with this one.

Second, a beautiful new Feist music video that could afford the celebratory fireworks that the 'copter could not.