Benanna Pancakes

I'm sorry I didn't get you anything for Valentine's Day, he said to me before leaving for work this morning.

What are you talking about, I replied. You took me out to dinner on Sunday night. I'm the one who didn't get you anything. I made you banana pancakes...I trailed off.

Because the truth of the matter is that I made him banana pancake batter. He turned it into banana pancakes.

And that, right there, is why I know he is my better half. And why Ben + Anna is better as Benanna. Because we finish each other's banana pancakes.

After almost nine years together, Valentine's day is no longer about roses and chocolates and mix CDs (although I have a great one of those from our first Valentine's day together - and it is timeless). My fifteen-year-old self would be horrified that we let those things go these days. Because that self thought that love and romance was all about chocolate and roses.

These days, I'm grateful for every moment that we get to spend together. Our life is not glamorous. It is not filled with champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries. We do not make time for extravagant romantic dinners or dress up to go out on Saturday evenings. Our love story is written in grocery shopping dates and snuggles in sweatpants on the sofa as we laugh together at our favorite shows or the antics of Aslan (while we give voice to his thoughts) on a Friday night. It sparkles with random kisses, welcome home hugs every day, kitchen conversations, and cheering each other through the joys and challenges of being a twenty-something. Knowing that my best friend has my back and feeling proud to have his gives me a bigger thrill than 100 bars of 85% dark chocolate.

And those are the things that I remember fondly on Valentine's day, but would rather celebrate every. single. day of the rest of the year.

Sweet Sentiment

Dear Mr. Webster,

Have you ever considered hiring a greeting card company to help you write your dictionary definitions? I'm submitting this as proof that you should. This one pretty much nailed it.

Fondly,
Anna

Love. of. my. Life.

He tells me he loves me every day. And I have no idea why.

I get cranky when I'm hungry, or tired, or...let's just face it, whenever I feel like it, because I am a girl. And he never judges or tells me that I'm ridiculous - he finds the humor in it and makes me feel better by helping me laugh at myself.

I fall asleep on the couch every night for two hours before he wakes me up and puts me to bed. No matter how much I fight it, he never lets me sleep on the sofa.

I come home exhausted and he makes dinner, without complaining.

I leave my things all over the place and he accepts it.

I forget to do my chores on my day off and he never reprimands.

He, on the other hand, plays with the cat for hours, cleans up dinner, watches Glee with me (don't tell anyone), lets me use his computer, makes the bed, takes out the trash, drives us when we run errands, takes me to the airport, and still opens doors and pays for dinner eight years after our first date. He knows exactly what to say to cheer me up, holds me through my tears, and encourages me to make our dreams come true.

He's superman, and I don't remind him often enough. But even when I do, he doesn't believe me when I tell him he's awesome and the best boyfriend in the world.

And really he is. Not only because of the little things he does, but for the person he is. He is patient, kind, funny, caring, understanding, level-headed, considerate, encouraging, and fun.

It makes me feel like the luckiest person in the world. I have so many more reasons to love him than he has to love me. But for some reason he still does.

Mine

Every time I listen to this song, I cry. I feel like it was written about my love story. But this post really isn't about my love story (sorry...maybe I'll share it another day :o). It's about Taylor Swift and why I love her.




My best friend from high school, Allison, invited me along to a Taylor Swift concert last summer. And there I made another one of my make-believe friendships. Taylor is as much of a space cadet as I am. She loves sparkly things and tells her fans she loves them.

But the truth of the matter is that I feel like she gets me. Like really gets me. As in, if I could write songs, this is what they would turn out like. A little cheesy, but full of the good and the bad, and the feelings that go along with it. I'm big on feelings.

She sings about her mom (yeah, that one makes me cry too) and being a geeky girl in high school. And it transports me back to being 16. I loved being 16...I'm probably the only person on the face of the planet who liked that age, but it was the year I became free by learning to drive (a land yacht of a Buick with peeling paint and bench seats that was only two years younger than me, but it was given to my family by a friend who was going off to college and there were so many good memories in that car) and went on my very first real dates and to prom and found the love of my life who is still the love of my life...and got my first real kiss. It was the year that I finally dared to hope that I might be okay (not even good - anything better than dismal) at sports after hours of hard work at swimming practices and a coach who really helped me believe in myself, and got my very first (and favorite-to-this-day) job at a paint-your-own-pottery shop where I found great friends in the other girls I worked with. They were some of the most creative and adventurous people I will ever have the privilege of knowing and they opened up my world.

I don't know if it's something about being in your early twenties that makes you nostalgic for the joys of being a teenager and even a child, but I see it in my own explorations and I hear it T.Swift's songs. And maybe it's that experiences are about feeling something and she doesn't sing only about what happened, but frames it within an image that reminds me of how my experiences made me feel too. I guess the thing is, events happen in a changing world, but emotions are timeless.

Even though not all the things she writes/sings about are happy things, this is still my happy music. Anger, sadness, loss...those subjects are still framed in a humorous or touching way that's still real. Like that song that's up at the top...it's about a love story that overcomes the only other "love story" that girl had ever really known. The fact that we all have seen "love stories" that are not really filled with love is sad, but true. I've experienced a few too many in my own life, but that's why I identify with this song. Because I've also been blessed with someone who is willing to help me rewrite how a love story ends...the right way.

Sheesh, I hope you can forgive me for getting all sentimental...but that's just what Taylor Swift does to me. The cheesiness probably gets me because I'm a big cheese ball myself. Whatevs. That's exactly why T.Swift and I should be best friends. Maybe then she'd also let me borrow from her closet???

Japan

I can't take credit for this one, but I'll do everything I can to help. I found this via Gail Werner, and I felt compelled to repost.

I talk a lot about myself and my life here in this little space, but there are so many bigger things going on in the world, and something like the magnitude of the Japanese disaster affects us all. When I think about people who have lost everything, and sometimes not just the material everythings in their life, but also the people everythings too - family members or dearest of friends - I can't help but put myself in their shoes and have sincere empathy for their heartbroken feelings. It becomes my heartbreak, too.

And yet, I am so far away and I wonder what I can do. Until I found this.

If you have the time to visit forjapanwithlove and the means to donate, all proceeds will go to shelterbox, which is an organization that provides a kit in a box that contains all the things needed for a temporary shelter for a family who lost their home.

But most importantly, please keep the Japanese in your thoughts and prayers as they rebuild their homes and their lives. They need all of our love.

Polar Bears

We were meant to be together. I knew it the day I found out that we both had the exact same polar bear stuffed animal and that they were most favorite of all the stuffed animals.

We had to be together so that our polar bears could be best friends. It was our destiny.