Our Anniversary

Yesterday, Perry and I celebrated our 22nd anniversary. It was a nearly child-free weekend, as Joe was out of town visiting friends and Sam went to Grandparent-Grandchild camp with my parents. How did we begin this memorable day? By doing Sam's paper route !

When Sam realized he'd have to miss a day of paper delivering, he tried to line up a sub, but everyone he called was unavailable. When Sam started this route a year ago, I insisted that this would be HIS job. I wasn't going to be one of those parents who is regularly seen driving their vehicle along the child's route or adding "assistant paper carrier" to their job description. I prefer to offer my support behind the scenes. Perry doesn't share my hang-up about this and suggested that we help Sam out this weekend. 

So, we got up bright and early and I dressed for the paper route...sweats, ballcap, sunglasses, and no make up. After all, no one would be seeing me, right? Perry and I loaded the papers...he took the big canvas paperboy bag and I handled the extras in a Fareway sack. We hopped on our bikes and pedaled off. The first street actually went pretty well. Perry and I divided the houses and efficiently zipped up and down the driveways. It was a bit tricky to get on and off a bike near each house's front step.  Once my bike crashed to the ground, tearing my capris when my seat and pant leg seemed to be attached. I had to remind Perry that a good paper-boy really shouldn't swear outside customers' homes just because he is struggling to balance a paper bag while steering a bike. 

My plan to stay in-cognito didn't last very long, as it seemed to be the day for everyone in that neighborhood to go outside and personally greet the paper carrier. Perry felt chatty and stopped to visit with two of Sam's customers, but I preferred to keep my baseball cap tipped low and keep going, because by then the rain had started.

As we finished the route I was relieved to see that the number of papers matched the houses we had on the list. We got home, dried off, and made plans to celebrate properly by going out to dinner that evening. Most people spend their anniversary reliving memories of past years, but leave it to us to create an unlikely new one.