So yesterday was a big day for me, emotionally. M and I have been trying to get our common law documentation signed by the appropriate people since March. I shit you not. Finally, September 9th, we are officially each other’s spouse.
I had a bit of a moment when going over the paper work. M just looked for the line and signed, whereas I gave the form a read, just to see what it said (you know, no ‘rule of thumb’ clauses, har). When I read the line that says “are officially recognized as husband and wife”, it touched me a little. It’s a big deal to me. Though I would prefer to be married, at least we’re official in the eyes of his employers – my country – I feel like I have some clout now.
The funny part was after. We waited around a LONG time before signing, waiting for the clerk to find the OC, the official who had to sign on our behalf and a guy M has had positive experiences with in the field. Once we had signed, a few minutes later the OC walked in, signed, was introduced to me by M, and he said to me, “you know that this is only step one, right?” I indicated that I wasn’t quite sure what he meant, and he said “at one point there needs to be a church involved, and a ring and… ” he trailed off. I laughed, loudly, in my nervous way (rank TERRIFIES me!), and said “ahh, yes. I do know. No church though, that’s not our thing”. He went on to say , “Oh, whatever, JP then?” And I said, “Yeah, JP would be fine.” M at this point piped in, “After tour. There will be many discussions. After tour”.
Ahhh. That feels better. I’ll never say it enough how much I want to marry this man, but we’ve agreed that the time is not now.
* * *
The second bit of big news is M’s. He’s a Corporal now! Finally! I was so excited when he came to see me at work (down the road from his work – but because my building is where all the ‘brass’ work, he hates going there), and noticed the second hook. I danced around the office a little and made my coworkers come look at his new epaulette. Apparently though, they only gave him a single green epaulette, which means he has to transfer it every time he changes combats.
We went out for dinner to The Keg (pretty much the only restaurant worth celebrating at around here) and it was really really good. M reminded me of when we went for dinner on his birthday to Hy’s, how the waiter, who spoke heavily accent English (we debated whether it was Eastern European – my guess – or Spanish – his guess), brought me a plate of crackers for eating when I’d requested “crackers” to get into the crab legs I’d ordered. He’d said that “they don’t usually have crackers with crab legs, but I’ll see what I can do”, so there was a huge up roar of laughter when he walks out with a plate of crackers. Even the people at the table beside us got a kick out of it.
So J5 and I have started a little bit of a pact, health and fitness wise. We’re holding each other accountable, and making sure we stay active. Good plan, I think. Doesn’t really work with a dinner of tempura snap peas and asparagus, caesar salad and crab legs :)
Anyway… that’s all for now. It just dawned on me that I haven’t started a countdown since we found out M’s departure date. I considered it briefly before turning it down. I really don’t want to watch this date approach as closely as I usually like to.
I wouldn’t mind starting a countdown to Posting, but don’t really want to get my hopes up if it falls through.
No countdowns for me, this time.
v&h
