Can we have a DO-OVER please?

Mr. P and I celebrated experienced another wedding anniversary! We share our anniversary with the Queen of England -- I'm sure that was unplanned on her part, as well as ours.  And I'm not sure at all what they did to celebrate, but I'm pretty sure it was better than what we ended up doing!

In the early days of our courtship, we spent an annual long weekend in Madison, Wisconsin, attending a "conference." So, in a spirit of nostalgia and anticipation, off to Madison we went! On a friend's advice, we were booked at a refurbished bed & breakfast hotel, originally built in the Victorian Era.  It's had its innings (haven't we all?!), but has survived an era of "squatting transients" (as the historical brochure curiously phrased it) to once again be used for its original purpose. It was quaint, but not too quaint--nary a doily in site; not even an antimacassar! Though, in hindsight, we could have used one...

On the bright, sunshiney morning that was our anniversary, I sat in the hotel's restaurant having some of the best Crab Cakes Eggs Benedict I've ever had in my life!....alone.  Later, I went to a movie that has yet to see national release, but it is playing in Madison because, well, Madison is cool like that. I sat alone.  After that, I wandered about an upscale shopping mall (we don't have that sort of thing out here in the sticks!), popping into this store and that, buying this and that....alone.  And even later, I sat in my hotel room and pretty much downed an entire bottle of wine...and I may as well have been alone.  And even later than that, I sat drinking in a bar...alone...waiting for my takeout meal to be ready.

Meanwhile, Mr. P spent our entire anniversary sitting in a chair in the corner, leaning his head back (antimacassar anyone?) with his eyes shut, or holding his head in his hands, in agony. When he wasn't doing that, he was horizontal, in agony.  And when he wasn't doing that, he was too too too well acquainted with that little room with those quaint, antique-style hexagonal black/white tiles....bathroom tiles...in agony.

Don't think it was all fun and games.... when I wasn't busy spending our anniversary alone, I was out purchasing pain killers, Imodium, 7-Up, Ginger Tea; and bringing back food carefully packed by sympathetic cooks and waitresses (most of which, sadly, remained uneaten).

A horrid flu-bug (as if there's any other kind?) descended upon my beloved and, beyond the tincture of time, there just wasn't much we could do about it.  He needed rest, darkness and quiet.  I needed to save my sanity.

It was a very, very long day....for both of us, but especially for Mr. P.

xoxoxox

As I write this, the tincture of time has indeed worked its magic.  

We are home again and Mr. P, while not exactly being at 100%, is doing much better.  

Life for us, luckiest of all, goes on.

Yep, we're still afloat!