Looking Forward: Monday September 30 to Friday October 4

I love looking forward to things, possibly even more than I love experiencing them.  I love the list-making, the research, the detail planning.

One thing to look forward to:  My sweetie-pants and I are going to be celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary.  Tenth!  It seems like such a long time, and yet I can't even remember when we weren't together.  It's like trying to access someone else's memories, I remember things but it feels like it wasn't really me.

I love being married, I love Greg, and I am surprised at how meaningful it is to me to have been together for more than a decade.  He and I have such a shared history of friends and homes and experiences that are gone forever now.  He knew my Dad, and he remembers Mom when she was still zipping around shopping malls and grocery stores and going to movie theaters.  It counts for a lot.  And after being together for nearly 12 years and married for nearly 10 it is shocking to me how well he knows me, and how I actually like that.

We have decided to celebrate IN NEW ORLEANS.  Yay!  Greg's never been and I haven't been since the early 90's, when I went with my ex-fiance.  (Side note: boy, was it ever the right decision to move on and not get married to that guy.)

We'll be staying at a hotel that's right next to Harrah's casino by the Mississippi river, at the edge of the French Quarter (I got it at a massive discount and a ridiculously good price.)

New Orleans just has so much character.  I'm starting to make lists and gather tips from friends who have been recently.  I want to go to Jackson Square, and ride the streetcar to the Garden District to see Ann Rice's house, and look through used book stores and art galleries, and listen to live music, and - most importantly of all - EAT.  I am looking forward to muffalettas and beignets and chickory coffee and bloody marys and oysters and gumbo and jambalaya and biscuits and pralines.

Despite making lists and plans, I mostly want to wander around and watch the people and see what we find and take pictures and stop suddenly every now and then to kiss my sweetie.

Oh boy, I am SO looking forward to it.