(By the way: Charlie's not in a shadow, he really does get that dark when exposed to sunlight or other forms of ultra violet radiation. After a few days at the beach, he makes me look like the Ghost of Christmas past. It's especially fun for my super white-skinned honky self when he holds my pale hand in his brown hand and sings, "Jungle Fever!")
As I mentioned, our anniversary is also what precipitated a lot of our friends and family joining with us on our Nantucket vacation. (If you guessed the kids were aptly watching TV {National Geographic} you'd be correct. It would appear children, under the age of 10, are physically unable to divert their eyes from Nat Geo Wild to look at the camera and say "CHEESE!")
The day of our anniversary, Charlie, who loves to do things up in grand style, put on his whale shorts and went to the store to purchase approximately one-dozen 1.5-pound lobsters. He also bought a 5-pound lobster that was probably hatched the year we were married (or perhaps much further back) and looked as though he had enough wisdom to tell us a thing or two about life.
We named the BIG LOBSTER Atticus and it was my wish that when the guys went on one of their deep sea fishing expeditions, they bring Atticus and release him to the ocean.
Charlie did not agree with my logic and instead released Atticus along with his 12 little friends to rapidly boiling pots of water.
Sure as I'm alive, I have memories of my parents cooking lobster when I was a child and after I would play with them on the floor while the water heated up - and I would form as deep of an emotional attachment as is possible with a crustacean - my parents would put the lobsters in the pot and they would SCREAM and try to FLICK the lid off with their tails.
Is there a worse way to go?
Charlie was trying to console me (and the children, who were basket cases of sorrow, especially Carolyn) by telling us that the lobsters are so excited because they are going to the spa and they would be so pretty when they were finished!
For what it's worth, I prayed over every single lobster that went in to the pot, and I did my very best to clean every ounce of lobster meat from their shells.
Tommy, who is not much of a lobster fan, cooked steak and I didn't think twice about what remained of a bovine on the plate. So it seems I really form an attachment to animals that I see alive before they are eaten ... lobsters, fish and gummy bears.
Twenty years of marriage ... its hard to believe how fast time keeps marching on. Like any couple, we've certainly had our share of highs and lows during that span of time, but with divorce statistics as high as 67% ... I think our secret (thus far) is that we try to stay focused on the positive and we strive to have fun together.
It also helps that he's not only a wonderful father to our children, he's my dark skinned, whale short wearing, lobster boiling best friend.
