Wedding Anniversaries and the Tao of Ice Cream.

Today marked our second wedding anniversary. Yay!

We were apart for most of the day but we ended up having dinner and topped that with ice cream from The Daily Scoop. (Shameless plug: Their Peanut Butter ice cream's to die for)

Well, we both had double scoops atop a chocolate coated waffle cone and all the ice cream got me thinking of the times that we used to have gelato in Melly. Ondine always complained that she could never consume her ice cream without ending up with half of it melted onto her fingers and I would spend hours teasing her about it mercilessly...but I digress. As we were taking a walk around Sunset way, I started thinking about the control of a double scoop of ice cream mounted on a cone...and I realised that marriage is similar in some respect:

Firstly, one needs to make sure that one pays attention to it. One cannot afford to take one's eye off it because that's when the melt overflows the edge of the cone. With a single scoop, one can afford to let ones eyes stray because single scoops are easily manageable. Double scoops are less so because they need a lot of work before the two become one.

Secondly, even pressure is the key. Push too hard and it topples. Gently does it. Shape it with a continuous caress. If one does not, then often the damage will be impossible to mend without an excessive save.

Thirdly, it's a whole lot of work that one has to put into making sure that it all stays together. A WHOLE LOT OF WORK. One has to ensure that the ice cream cone is constantly rotated and one has to cover all the bases. You can't let any part of it slip, otherwise, it starts cracking up.

That was all I gleaned from tonight's ice cream encounter.

I remember when I was at the altar waiting for Ondine to arrive two years ago and I guess that I was as nervous then as I ever was. Thoughts of flight actually went through my head because the thought of getting married was so huge. Then again, it could've been stage fright. But here's the thing. I thought that the one big step was all I was going to take and that would be it, happily ever after...but it's not. The wedding is only the starter's pistol. Then it's all about running the race. It's hard work really. Adjusting, finding time to be kind to each other, loving the person when you're squabbling over the bills or things that you (read: I) forgot to do, just being with each other without taking the other for granted. It's all hard work. But then I realised that despite the hard work, it's also the easiest thing to do.

It's been two wonderful years...and many more to come.