Anniversary Flowers

This morning the bell rang at 11:00 and it was the flower man. The flower man only visits our house once a year. There are almost always flowers in the house (it is the Netherlands, after all), but the delivery of flowers rarely happens. It could only be one person - our friend, Butch. The photo is courtesy of Fred, who is pretty good with a camera.

Butch remembered our anniversary, which is November 19 - this coming Monday. It's not the day Fred and I met (that was August 19), but it was the day that...the love that dare not speak its name spoke its name. And Butch, being very thoughtful and loving (as well as a faithful reader) sent flowers to celebrate. Thanks, Butch! (And how many people have a friend named Butch?)

Maybe I'll give a quick rundown of "our story." Fred and I met a little over five years ago when a friend and I were on a month-long trip through Europe. (It was my first trip - and I moved here a year and a half later.) The friend had met Fred on a tour of South Africa, kept in touch and had arranged for us to stay with him for a bit of free lodging - five days. (All of our lodging on that trip was free.) We enjoyed each other's company, kept in touch and when he was in NYC on business the following November, we hung out a lot, eventually disclosing our mutual attraction to each other. I visited him, he visited me and the following March, I decided I would move the following January. The longer version is much longer.

Anyway, Butch was a great friend and support during the time when I was deciding to not only leave the city which had become my home, but to leave the country in which I had spent 38 years. Butch has come to visit twice and I hope he will come again soon. (That's Butch in the picture being the cool New Yorker that he is.)

So what are the big plans for our anniversary? Well, Fred is going to his first drawing class and I'm going to go to the Stitch 'n Bitch. Then we're going to meet back here and watch Far from Heaven, which is the movie we had just seen when I made my move. Then we'll get up early the next day and fly to Ohio for Thanksgiving. Romantic dinner? Yeah. We'll do something on Sunday evening.