Very few people know this, but The Physicist and I were married twice.  And today is the anniversary of our first, "secret" marriage.   

Although we've been legally married for six years, I always lump in the first year we were together because we never really DATED.  Well, maybe we dated for a week, but from there on out, we were bound together by a connection I never knew I could have with someone else.  I know our courtship is only interesting to us, but I love remembering those truly unbelievable days of falling in love.  One of these days soon I'll blog about it, just so we can have it all written down somewhere.

But in September of 2000, we ran off to New York and got married by a Justice of the Peace at City Hall.  I honestly can't recall anything specific that made us decide to elope despite the fact we were having a full-blown church wedding later in January.  I'm sure my impatience had something to do with it.  When I decide I want to do something, like get married, I don't want to wait.  Another factor was that unstoppable force known as my mother.  The Physicist and I had a pretty good idea of what kind of wedding we wanted to have -- small, intimate, quiet.  My mother had other ideas.  Eloping was a way of controlling our marriage. 

The practical reason for eloping had to do with health benefits.  On September 7 we packed up our three cats and moved from Houston to Northern Virginia so The Physicist could make his transition from student to working stiff.  I didn't have a job in Virginia, and thus no health insurance.  His company offered domestic partner benefits and we even went so far as to fill out the forms and get the documentation together. 

However, back in August we'd visited my grandparents in upstate New York.  That's where we first started discussing the possibility of eloping.  Just to cover our bases, we got a marriage license.  So upon moving to Virginia, we were all set... 

The story of our elopement is classic (at least to us).  On the drive to NY, we had what is to this day probably our biggest fight.  Then there was the money order catastrophe.  But we made it.  We stood before a Justice of the Peace with a missing front tooth and a witness we'd never met before and vowed to spend our lives loving and respecting each other.  And even though our "public" wedding was beautiful and (nearly) perfect, our "secret" wedding is my favorite. 

I'll write a second part to this entry sometime in the next few days, describing that amazing day. For reasons I don't care to get into, I'm sleep-deprived, suffering from a head cold, and I need to pack.  The Physicist and I are leaving for our annual week on Nantucket tomorrow.  But I'll leave you with a photo.  It's from our "public" wedding, but as on that day in September, it shows us walking bravely forward, alone together.