An Anniversary and a Birthday

The lovely couple on our wedding day

In August of 1988, my friends Mel and Pat (now Mel and Leslie, Pat and Joe) strongly encouraged me to start riding my bike with them on Rice University’s oval cycling track. Yes, that Rice University. The brainy one. The so-called Harvard of the south. Smack dab in Houston’s medical center area, Rice boasts eggheads as well as a cycling track in one of the football stadium’s parking lots. Why? Maybe one of the administrators loved the movie “Breaking Away.”

Seeing as how I was training for a duathlon (a run-bike-run) and didn’t particularly like cycling, I figured it would be more palatable with friends. So I showed up with my Cannondale road bike (full disclosure: Said bike has been hanging up in the garage for so many years that the humidity has eaten away most of the seat) and was introduced to a cute guy. I looked down at his feet and stared at his socks (isn’t that what everyone does when they first meet someone new?).

“Mismatched socks,” I remember thinking. “This is someone who might put up with me.”

It was the future Mister.

So the future Mister and I started cycling around the track together. Lap after lap after lap we talked and got to know each other better. Several times a week after that, I would meet Mel, Pat, the future Mister, and other assorted cyclists at the track to ride. Before long, the future Mister worked up his nerve to ask me this burning question: “Do you like to go to movies and stuff?”

“Yes,” I replied. “I’m very partial to stuff.”

The first movie we saw together was “A Fish Called Wanda.” I liked it, and I especially liked the future Mister. Nineteen years ago today on a very warm Sunday in my friend Carol’s West University house (which, unfortunately, had a broken air conditioning unit), the future Mister became the Mister. In some ways it seems like just yesterday, but in others it seems like it’s been forever. We’ve produced two handsome sons who keep us on the go, and we have a full life that I treasure.

These days it’s rare for the two of us to cycle together; maybe we’ll grab our mountain bikes (full disclosure: It’s thankfully flat in these parts) this weekend and ride on our neighborhood bike path. Breaking away from the boys sometimes can be a good thing!

the Beck and Ken

Happiest of birthdays to my #1 niece

Today is my #1 niece’s 37th birthday. I was the first member of the extended families to see the Beck after she was born, because my oldest sister and then-brother-in-law also were at the University of Illinois when I was a freshman. What do I remember most about her way back then? Lots of dark hair!

The Beck is all growed up now, of course, and fixin’ to get married this July to Ken (full disclosure: Here in the Houston area, we say “fixin’ to” a lot and sometimes we say “growed” instead of “grown”; that’s just how we roll grammatically.). When I married the Mister (at the somewhat-advanced age of 36), the Beck didn’t attend the wedding, because it was her 18th birthday, and she wanted to celebrate it at home with her friends. Doesn’t 18 seem like a long time ago, Beck? It sure does for me!

While I’m enjoying my 19th wedding anniversary, I hope my niece has a wonderful birthday. Maybe she and Ken will go cycling, too!