The other weekend, we were coming home as our upstairs neighbors were heading out to dinner to celebrate their six month wedding anniversary. They were married last August in a beautiful ceremony at the Basking Ridge Country Club, which we missed because I couldn't get my hair in a ponytail without the clips of my extensions showing. We did make it in time for the cocktail hour, however, so disaster was avoided.
But I digress.
As their wedding was just a few weeks before our own, Dara reminded me (as the four of us stood crowded in the foyer of our building) that our six month anniversary would be coming up shortly. I got super excited because a). our wedding day was the BEST DAY EVER and b). I love any excuse to go out to dinner, drink champagne, and trick Matty into thinking a gift is required (Matt does everything by the book, I've learned, so if I treat something as fact and present it as a commonly practiced tradition, he is incapable of not abiding by it - hence my gorgeous Tiffany gold key necklace, that I received as a wedding present the morning of our nuptials. I know, I know...).
Well, just as I started bubbling with excitement, I looked over and saw a smirk on Matty's face. We exchanged goodbyes with our friends and headed into our flat; that damn smirk was still on his face, so I asked him what was up.
"It's too bad we don't have a six month anniversary to celebrate," he replied.
Dumbstruck, I gave him one of my looks and huffed, "What are you talking about. Of course we do, duh! And it requires a gift."
"Um, nope. We don't have one. We were married on the 29th of August. There is no 29th of February, so there is no six month anniversary," he announced ruefully, "which means there is no gift requirement, either".
WTF? Was he insane? I thought he was the one good at math! I thought about it for a second and suddenly, it sunk in.
Oh crap. He was right, our six month anniversary doesn't exist: no leap year = no anniversary = NO PRESENTS!!! And there was no getting around it; as I mentioned above, my Matty does things by the book so if there's no February 29th, then there's no six month anniversary, end stop.
So, instead of spending the weekend prancing around the flat working myself into a fever in anticipation of our six month anniversary celebration and what would have been, no doubt, a fabulous pressie, I'll be spending the weekend lamenting all of the injustices in this world, of which not using your six month anniversary as an excuse to trick your husband into buying you gifts may not be the worst.
