7 Years Later & Still 17 Apart

This Monday we'll take a break from our regular Weekend Basics format to let you know we're celebrating our 7th anniversary today. Yes, our anniversary is on Halloween.


It's kind-of one of those funny stories in that Tim and I couldn't (and still can't) actually agree on our real anniversary date — because we could both agree we were an item by Halloween those 7 years ago we just went with it. With each October that creeps up on us, we have the age old debate about how it all really went down in our own opinions. It's infuriating and hilarious at the same time.

After 7 years, we're proud to say we've been able to keep the "silly" right along with the serious in our relationship (hence the lens cap on the camera in the picture above — I really thought it was off until we got the photo-strip later).

In the spirit of silly and looking back, we thought we'd try to dig up some of the earliest photos we have together to share here. It was fun digging around for them and trying to pinpoint which may have actually been the first photo.

1. My college graduation. Tim and I both still can't believe he dated me while I was in college (notice the oh s*** look in my eyes - Tim) The graduation was the first time he ever met my parents, so he was probably more nervous attending than I was to walk the stage. This is probably the oldest photo we have of the two of us.

2. Probably one of our favorite memories and photos — while on vacation in Mexico, we met "Coco" the photo-taking chimpanzee on the side of the road during a bike ride. After taking this more appropriate photo, the owner told Coco to give the camera the finger. I'll have to dig up that shot to share another time. Now every time we see or hear of someone getting mauled by a chimp we think back on this day.

3 & 4: More early shots of when I first moved to Brooklyn and a day trip to my mother's home on the river.

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We're planning to keep things pretty low key tonight and have dinner at one of our favorite places in town, Mama Zu (after handing out candy to our earlier trick-or-treaters). It's one of those places that's so good it doesn't even have a website for us to link to, doesn't take reservations, and is sort of a local legend. From the outside it looks like it could be a bit of a hole in the wall, but definitely a food stop we'd recommend if in or near the Richmond area.

We'd love to know - what are your best tips for leaving candy in front of the house when headed out on Halloween? Do you go the note route or turn the lights out all together? I'll let you in on a secret — when I first started dating Tim, he was the guy on the block that turned off all the lights and left the house on Halloween, for shame! It's taken me over the course of 7 years, but over time, I've been able to convert him into a jack-o-lantern making, candy buying, lights on house each Halloween now, haha.