10 Years to Life

10-years later. It was a lot like time-lapse in the movies,
but without the fake sleeping and fast moving alarm clock. 

"Ok everyone, instead of a guest book, we decided to put a time capsule together.  Write your names and your best wishes or guesses as to where we'll be in 10 years, and we'll open it up for our 10th anniversary and see who was closest."

That was the note I left on the table at the entrance to our reception, 10 years ago.  Rather, I assume it was but I have no real recollection of that day except that I cried (a lot) and rode in a carriage (princess-style) to find my best guy at the end of a walk with my parents.

I figured (even then) that we'd never open a book with a bunch of signatures on it -- although if I had thought about it, I would have kept the signatures to use in some bank heist fraud thing, possibly involving magicians and/or Kaiser Soze, but I didn't think that far ahead, I guess.

And yes, I know Photo Shop, even PAINT, existed 10 years ago and that our can looks pretty ghetto by today's standards, but it worked for 2003.

Just outside the frame is a claymation Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, with his friend a California Raisin.

Plus, you're seeing it the way you watch Original Star Wars in 2013 (not the blue-ray enhanced edition).  The Original Star Wars, as seen on VHS copies, is just a bunch of claymation and bullshit. I am a Star Wars Fan; I know stupid amounts of trivia although I have never done any costume stuff for it (I secretly want do but don't really know how).

But as I sat there, basking in the ... pain of the original edits of the '77, '80 and '83 films, I asked myself repeatedly why I thought the movie was even GOOD, let alone amazing.  I had a complete existential breakdown while watching this films every time Yoda latexed his way through a scene. Do or Do Not, there is no Try? Trust me, Yoda baby, your special effects are not very special 25 years later.

It was quite a mountain, no matter how paltry this might look. 

How did I not notice this in the 80's, or when I re-watched everything in the 90's? I guess it's like an old boyfriend; all the signs were there from the beginning, you were too busy making out every 5 seconds to notice them.

Anyway, we had our guests fill out their thoughts for us on little note papers and stick 'em inside for us to read later.

What. A.  Hoot.

Let's just say several of the notes were proof that things get x-rated after a few glasses of wine.

"A Strip Pole would be fun in the bedroom." "Buy a trapeze!" "Order out!"
I think we were being told to get dinner and make a movie, but I could be wrong.

Then there were lots of notes figuring we'd have several kids-- I mean litters worth. I don't know if I was all "I can't wait to get on the baby train!" at the reception or something, but seriously, there were at least a dozen that suggested we'd have 7, 8, 9 kids.

Oy.

Then there were a bunch that were very sweet, wishing us well and all sorts of lovely things, like wild success and love and happiness untold. Or, in this case, wishing us to know that Sept 13, 2013 would be a Friday, which it was.


And then there were the notes written in handwriting we'd lost in the last 10 years.  Family and friends who were at our wedding, but are no longer here to hug and laugh with. Reading those notes was bittersweet-- it is all I have left of some of these people.

To feel everyone's love again was wonderful.  If you are getting married, I highly recommend doing this paint-bucket time capsule.  I wish we'd done one for 25 years, too, but on our wedding day, even 10 years later seemed impossibly far off into the distance.

This is why I have trouble with History. I can't remember and feel connected to things 10 years ago, let alone 30, let alone 3000 years. I feel like Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, with even less understanding of the past, but with slightly better hair.

If Bill had red hair, and Ted was Theodora, this would be exactly what it's like. I think this is exactly the haircut I had in 1993.  No wonder Rufus is rolling his eyes.

That paint bucket, by the way, followed us when we moved to Denver, Colorado shortly after we were married, and to 2 dwellings while we were there, and back again to Canadia to our house now.

That paint bucket has seen us through 2 dogs, 2 cats, 2 kids and 2 cars.   Our bucket hung out while we ripped up carpeting and put down laminate flooring, and when I painted the wall of our house with crazy squares because we couldn't afford to buy any art that would fit the space. It lived in the spooky crawlspace of our 1-floor house and didn't manage to piss off the werewolf family that lived in there and guarded our Christmas tree.

These notes of love sent encouragement when I had to wait a year for in-state tuition even though we'd lived in Colorado for 363 days prior to the cut-off date.  The "get take-out" one was especially loud before we had kids and completely changed the way we eat so they could be healthier.  Now it's quieter, but still (as far as I'm concerned)  quite insistent.  ha.

Our bucket of ideas and wishes planned out some "really, really, really, really" tall kids, which, as predicted by my friend in Missoula, "Two Great Danes do not a Chihuahua make."  Prophetic? Possibly.  Hilarious? Yep.  And do we have two gigantic children? Uh-huh.

What the bucket didn't say was how many people we'd meet that would be so important to us.  Some friends have been constant, some more temporary.  But all have a special place in our hearts and lives.

Now I sound like a Beatles song.

It's true though. Just like Star Wars (VHS) there is a time and a place for that fun stuff, and if you want the people who are important to you to remain that way, you have to update them for the times.  Lucasfilms gets a lot of flak for adding background, adding cut scenes et cetera.  But, I think everything that is different is (initially) troublesome to people resistant to change.

If it's awesome, why change it, right?

Well, I'll tell you why: because no matter how awesome it seems today, the same thing 10 years from now will seem like a bunch of 2-year olds invented it with playdough and sticks.  You don't want your friendships to seem like a bunch of toddlers are running the show do you? Well, do you?

When you watch VHS Star Wars TODAY, you feel cheated, like there's so much AWESOME that you remember, and yet, where is it now?  Nobody wants their marriage to be a "greatest hits" album. No one wants their partner for life to be some idiot reliving glory days from 10 years ago.  That's why Lucasfilms did what it did.

Those edits are like friendships maturing, changing but being the same because everyone changes.  No one stays the same without choosing to do so.  Everyone changes, and it's those of us who insist on changing together that make it down these long roads to milestones.  I mean, the Me that was ME 10 years ago, is not the ME I am today.  Not wholly anyway.  I remain Mostly Me because Husband has remained Mostly Him.  And together, we're the same people we were, only better.

So thanks for being there (if you were), and for showing up late (if you're new).

We appreciate you keeping a spot in our lives, and letting us occupy a spot in yours.