anniversary (Ich hab mein Hertz in NYC verloren)

This was the New York City skyline on 4 September 2004, the night we were married. We decided to get married on the East River in Long Island City, Queens, not just because of the magnificent views, but because that is where we lived together until I moved to California to go to graduate school. We lived apart for 3 years while I completed my coursework, but I flew back to New York for our wedding. I couldn't imagine getting married anywhere else.



Instead of rings, we opted for tattoos. Knowing what we know about the diamond trade and its grave effects on several African countries, we couldn't in good conscience buy any. Plus, I had seen a very cool supervisor at my old job who got her wedding ring tattooed and I thought it was the neatest thing ever. Her design was Chinese characters in red, we decided to go for something more abstract, in blue. We were tattooed in St. Louis a few weeks before the wedding, by a very talented artist named Ahmed, who helped us refine the design. The tattoo parlor was Trader Bob's.

This year, the weather has been grey and gloomy, cold and rainy for the past week or so, so our anniversary was dreary [weather-wise]. To add insult to injury, Daiku had to go to work, since in the irony of ironies, his college does not believe in people taking the day off on labor day.



However, Daiku brought a ray of sunshine into the day by bringing home flowers and one of my all-time favorite things in the world, Concord grapes. The mixture of sweet and sour, and the intriguing texture of these grapes make me so happy to pop them into my mouth.

We'll celebrate more properly this weekend (hopefully with the cooperation of the weather) by going to visit Farm Sanctuary and then to Ithaca to have dinner at Moosewood Restaurant. I've never been to Farm Sanctuary and can not wait! Moosewood is an anniversary tradition of sorts, since we went there last year too.

And yes, we both miss NYC and hope to live there again someday. And yes, we still have the tattoos.

anniversary (Ich hab mein Hertz in NYC verloren)