Six months . . .

On Friday, Henry and I celebrated six months of courting. Since we both have birthdays coming up soon, we decide to make this a big thing and not worry about the birthdays.

So Friday afternoon, I was sitting at my desk, working away. I looked up and saw a bunch of balloons over my cube wall, coming my way. They were red and white, some of them said "Happy Anniversary" on them, there was one with "Love" and a rose on it, and the best of the bunch was a big transparent balloon with about fifteen smaller balloons blown up inside of it. The balloon delivery guy stopped at my desk and said, "Congratulations! The card says, 'Happy Anniversary. Love Henry.' " Then he set the balloons down in my cube, explaining how long they would last and how to transport them.

By this time, all of the legal assistants from my department were gathered around watching. My face felt like it was on fire, and I didn't know what to say. Then the balloon man asked me, "What's your favourite colour?" When I told him blue, he took out a few long balloons from his pocket. He blew up three balloons and proceeded to make a balloon sculpture, a pink heart with a blue and a green swan inside, with their beaks touching.

Four of the lawyers had joined the crowd now, and everyone was watching and oohing and ahhing. I heard one lady say, "I'm giving my husband an earful when I get home tonight." My lawyer, Helen, told me, "I didn't even get balloons when I had my baby." The balloon guy left, and the crowd dissipated, but not before several of them told me I had to hang on to my man, and another had said, "I hope you're still around when you have your one-year. I want to see what he does then."

One of the funnest (!) things, though, was getting on the subway after work with my armload of balloons, my backpack, and my bag. Uhhuh.

When I got to Henry's station, he was waiting for me with a huge grin on his face. I think he enjoyed the balloon surprise as much as I did. Once at the car, we loaded the balloons in the back, and as I stepped into the passenger side, I found another present. There were six red roses on the seat for me.

Then Henry told me that we were going for dinner somewhere. We were both dressed up, as he had asked me to take good clothes along for after work. The place we went to was Ric's Grill. Ric's is in a re-furbished old warehouse downtown Edmonton. The decor is neat, the service fantastic, and the food delicious.

Later Henry and I drove to West Edmonton Mall and wandered around for a while, visiting a few stores there. All in all, a very nice anniversary.