Week 80: A Reason to Celebrate
An entire weekend of reflecting on our two years of marriage…
Each Sunday, my wife and I cook and eat a meal together — intentionally. Every Friday, I’ll be sharing our experience here in this space. I want to see the growth that will come in our marriage because of this. I hope you enjoy our story. You can find last week’s post here.
I looked out the window as people milled about the streets of Chicago. Dusk was merging into evening, and the dim lighting on the second floor of our dinner destination was helping set the mood. We were at Gibson’s Steakhouse — one of our favorite places. Over two years earlier — January 24, 2015 — Sarah and I had been a floor below eating a fancy dinner before heading up to the northside of Chicago where I would propose just outside Wrigley Field. Later that same year — September 12, 2015 — we were married.
This night, we were celebrating our anniversary.
That day in mid-September changed my life forever. It set me on an adventure with my best friend in the entire world. It’s an adventure that continues every day of our lives. I love her so much, and I’m so blessed to be her husband. Something as wonderful as our marriage deserves celebration. And in our two years of marriage, we’ve made sure to celebrate our anniversary and reflect on the beauty of being married to each other.
Our waiter came back to the table with the bottle of champagne we had ordered. As he poured us each a glass, he remarked, “You too really seem to know how to celebrate.” That stuck with me. Because our life together is worth celebrating. Our marriage is worth celebrating. It’s worth getting a little fancier and going a little extra. As the waiter left, I turned to look at my beautiful wife. She smiled at me as we enjoyed the best steak dinner we’ve ever had. That night was such a special time of remembering and reflecting on the joy of our married life. We were sitting in a restaurant that is special to us and brings back fond memories of the beginning of our adventure together. But we also learned something else this weekend — that marriage brings adventures you could have never seen coming.
A few months earlier, we had decided that we wanted to do a weekend in Chicago to celebrate our anniversary. It was actually going to be a few days before our literal anniversary, but that wasn’t going to dim the celebration one iota. We booked a fancy downtown hotel, and we got a dinner reservation at Gibson’s. Those two alone would make for a fantastic weekend!
The week before, we had been in Chicago as well — when I came back from my trip down south and Sarah, my Dad and I all went to the Field Museum.
On that trip, we drove past the hotel we’d be staying at just days later. It just so happened that our hotel was a block away from one of Sarah’s favorite places in Chicago — Do-Rite Donuts! It was there, also on January 24, 2015, that we found out that they make the best gluten-free donuts. It had been years since Sarah had eaten a donut, and it has since become a staple of our Chicago trips ever since.
Each morning of our anniversary weekend, I got up and went for a stroll down Randolph Street in downtown Chicago to pick up some donuts and coffee. It was early enough that the streets of Chicago weren’t as busy as usual. I enjoyed the views of the city as the famous wind rushed through the steel canyons amid the skyscrapers. Sarah enjoyed her gluten-free donuts! :) On Saturday morning, after coffee and donuts (priorities!), we both went on a walk through Millennium Park and down to Buckingham Fountain. Chicago is simply a gorgeous city!
All of that was fantastic. It was such quality time for Sarah and I — walking together and thinking about all the great times we’ve shared in just two years. But Saturday was a banner day for an entirely different reason…one that we couldn’t have seen coming until we arrived in Chicago the night before.
The traffic was horrible. I guess we should have expected as much on a Friday evening in Chicago, but we were both still a little frustrated. Finally, we made it to the hotel. In our excitement to grab our things and make sure not to forget to tip our valet, we forgot that we had left a bag containing a partially-eaten Jimmy John’s sandwich in our car which would now be parked for the entire weekend. Thoughts of what it might smell like on Sunday flashed through my mind. To say we were a little flustered would be an understatement.
But…we were finally here.
As we walked into our hotel, it started to sink in — we were finally on our anniversary getaway. We had been looking forward to this for quite some time. Now, we were here. We just wanted to take it all in.
As soon as we had settled our things in our hotel room, we made our way back outside to walk through the city. We had one destination in mind — The PrivateBank Theatre. A certain show about “the ten-dollar Founding Father without a father” was playing there and we wanted our picture beneath the marquee. That’s all we wanted, nothing more. Since our hotel was in the Theater District, it wasn’t a long walk. We got our photo.
As we went to leave, I remembered that there had recently been a new block of Hamilton tickets put on sale for next spring. I asked Sarah if she wanted to go in and get tickets at the box office. I figured everything was booked up until April, but it still would be cool to get tickets — even months in advance.
“Nah, we can just get them online, right?” Sarah said.
“Come on,” I coaxed. “It doesn’t hurt to check, right?”
Those may have been the most prescient words I’ve ever spoken.
We walked into the Hamilton Chicago box office (a pretty neat experience in and of itself) and came up to the window. I explained our situation to the attendant. Her next words floored me.
“We actually have two tickets for tomorrow night’s show if you want those.”
WHAT?!!! We both looked at each other in amazement. I had originally looked at getting Hamilton tickets for this weekend over two months earlier, but there weren’t any available online. She then told us that the evening show was at 8 pm. We already had dinner reservations for 7:30. Just as we were about to cancel them, she told us that there were also two tickets for the matinee show as well.
We were going to see Hamilton!
That next afternoon — after our morning walk and before our dinner at Gibson’s — we came back to the same place we had been just hours before. But this time, we had HAMILTON TICKETS!!!! We sat in the theater and watched as this masterpiece took place before our very eyes. Sarah and I made it a point to tell each other to take it all in. To slow down and really let the experience sink in. Lin-Manuel Miranda is a writing hero of mine, and I’ve been dreaming about going to see Hamilton for some time now. Sarah and I did not think that dream would come true quite so quickly.
As I left my seat, I took one final turn and looked back at the stage. It’s memories like this that I will cherish for a lifetime. And there is no one I’d rather share them with than my wife. My best friend. My partner. Sarah.
The weekend had one final treasure in store. On Sunday, we capped off our celebration at another special place for us — Wrigley Field. We both are huge baseball fans. In fact, we first officially met at a baseball game. Our first date was a baseball game. And, like I said before, I proposed just a few blocks from Wrigley Field. So, we decided to head up to Wrigleyville and take in a day game of Cubs baseball.
It was the perfect way to end our weekend of celebration. But the celebration never truly stops. One of the many things I love about Sarah is how she makes every day special. Our life together truly is an adventure. Like any journey, it has its ups and downs — like the fact that the Cubs ended up losing on this day.
But even with the hills and valleys, the journey is undeniably beautiful.
Did we do any cooking this Sunday? Well, not unless you count my morning donut run as cooking. But sometimes, it’s important to let celebration and reflection take the front seat. We did that this weekend, and it will be one that Sarah and I will cherish for the rest of our lives.
