Fourteen years ago, I stood in front of my family, friends and God and promised to love, honor and cherish a fabulous man. 14 years ago.  Gah, we were babies!! {We’ve officially been married longer than my parents’ first marriage!!}

I’m pretty sure I couldn’t have picked a better guy to spend my life with; I know I couldn’t have picked a better man to make babies with – he is a wonderful father.  We’ve had our ups and downs, but we are good.  Solid.  I trusted him with my heart 14 years ago (well, 18, really) and he’s taken good care of it ever since.

With two young kids it becomes easy to forget that we were a couple first and parents second; admittedly neither of us can, nor want to,  remember our lives before the boys.  Yet we still try to make time for us – we go to dinner every once in awhile, we go shopping, we play golf when we can.  One day, when our boys leave us with an empty nest, I’ll be glad to have this man by my side, basking in the silence and warmth of years of memories.

Happy Anniversary, dweeb.

Mike and I headed down to CoPa (Comerica Park, that is) on Friday to take in our first Tiger game of the season – coincidentally, Opening Day, 2009.

We got there early enough to find good parking in our usual secret spot and wander around outside the park before we headed in. The streets and bars downtown were crowded with a festive vibe – people everywhere!!

the "D"

It was a beautiful (ok, so that’s stretching the truth a little – it was low 50s and breezy, but at least there was sun for awhile!) day and our seats were about 6 rows back in right field – right behind Magglio.  As we watched the game and hung out, we laughed a lot, especially at the people around us…

My favorites, overheard at the ballpark:

(after a well-hit fly ball) “Man, he hit that ball like 420 yards!” (Now, THAT would be impressive!)

(a lady trying to describe where she was sitting): “I’m on the main floor, right behind the first base, er, in right, er left, field!” (Main floor? Lady, when is intermission?? hehe)

(after a ball went foul): “Come on, that ball was out of bounds!” (hey, dude, that’s the second time you’ve confused baseball with football!)

While we were there, we enjoyed a few Dirty Blondes

Dirty Blonde

(It’s a beer…what were YOU thinking?!)

We also found a few things to wonder about…

1. 

   Empty seats?

2. 

   Reading the newspaper?

3. 

   Dress appropriately much?

   One of the things that I swear I will never, ever understand is the women who dress inappropriately for the ballpark   Although the anonymous girl pictured above is wearing deck shoes (!!), she and her friend were wearing SKIRTS. Now it was a nice day, but not nearly skirt weather in the D, if you know what I mean.  But the worst offenders are the women who dress as if they are going out to the bar instead of sitting in hard metal seats to watch a ballgame! I mean, really? You think high heeled f-me boots are the best option for walking up and down the concrete steps in an open air stadium? And those clothes? Huh.  Not to mention the purses! OY, the purses! (Of course, everything I need for a ballgame fits in my pockets – money, id, phone).

mmm...beer...

Mike and I had a good time.  It was a really good day.  We took our time getting there, were able to relax and have fun during the game, the game was great,

scoreboard

it didn’t rain, and we didn’t have to hurry home.  Usually we have to rush home to relieve our babysitter, but Friday we just didn’t. We even went to our favorite mexican joint on the way home for dinner!!

Empty!

When we finally got home (well after the stadium emptied and the darker clouds rolled in), we hung out in the driveway with the neighbors, watching the kids play.  Since no one else had eaten, we went to the local dive bar and fed our kids some greasy pizza and smoke.  We got the heck out of there just as the karaoke was starting – small town bar + drunk people = very bad singing!!

It was a good day. A very good day, that Mike and I really needed to have together. Life is short – and even though we were branded “heathens” for going to the ballpark on Good Friday by my mother, neither of us would have had it any other way.

(We determined, for the record, that had Jesus had a choice of being nailed to the cross or going to opening day, he would have chosen the same as we did!)