SEVENTEEN YEARS!

We've been married SEVENTEEN years.  I have some trouble wrapping my head around that number, because there are some days I forget I am older than seventeen.

I'll try and list a few "concrete" things, number wise, that occurred over the past 17 years.

[ No particular order ]
We've had 2 kids.
We've lived in 1 apartment, and 2 different houses.
I've had 3 jobs, Carly has done 2 stints with the same group.
5 cars, 2 of which we started with.
1 dog, 2 guinea pigs, and 3 aquariums.
3 guitars, 1 ukulele, and 2 harmonicas
4 PCs ( 3 of which I built during the course of our marriage ), and 2 laptops.
4 personal mobile phones
550GB of  digital pictures, 8 notebooks full of slides and negatives, and uncounted boxes of prints
2 couches
1 set of good kitchen knives

Not sure if listing this stuff really helps me put a perspective on things or not.  Not really.

As an aside if I got a do-over, we'd get the good set of knives much earlier -- like put it on the registry earlier.  Good knives changed my life.

When we reached twelve years, I did a post for that too.   Nothing I wrote there has changed, really.  I could add to it, but aside from stealing the picture theme I don't want to mimic it too much.  So, go read that one, and come back here.

But I want to focus a little on the future.  It seems to me my marriage is its own entity.  It was brought into being when we said some vows.  It is something that belongs to us, but at the same time it IS us.  I can't even think of myself apart from Carly.  I really simply think in terms of "us".

I'm kind of excited.  If the songs are to be believed 17 is the age when I person grows up, and starts becoming themselves.  It could be the same way for marriage, maybe any of the awkwardness or mistakes of the early years are built into something better.  The good gets magnified, and any of the not so good diminishes.  Despite how good the last 17 years were -- I want the next 17 to be better yet.  Its possible, no matter how good things are they can ALWAYS be better.

Now, I guess I should go.  As Meatloaf sings "We were barely seventeen... " [ ... and needed to go to sleep because, dang, we are old? ]