Fortieth anniversary

Earlier today I checked quickly, and yes—sure enough—I posted something ten years ago today, on the occasion of Wife's and my thirtieth anniversary. 

Now it's ten years later. Our fortieth. And since we are still legally married, I suppose that technically it counts as an anniversary. But this time around I haven't heard anything from her.

Ironically, I even sent her something, though I didn't look at the calendar when I ordered it, and so didn't think of it as an anniversary present. But I called her a couple weeks ago. (Well, it was on July 30, a day after this post.) I was still puzzling over the way that the job offer had dropped into my lap, and I wanted to ask if she had worked magic for it without telling me. (I was thinking of this story here.) She said no, but we talked for a while longer. Then she did a Tarot reading for me on the phone, and told me that I was confronted with two paths and would have to make a choice between them. (Gosh, thanks.)

But after I hung up the phone, I remembered that I had thought more than once that she might like John Michael Greer's The Witch of Criswell. It's a mystery novel, it's about the occult, and the heroine is a young adult. (Does that make it a YA novel?) Wife likes all three of those. So I went online and ordered her a copy … without, as I say, looking at the calendar.

When I got the order confirmation, they estimated delivery on August 12. Only then did I do a double-take, and chuckle.

I sent her a text message to let her know it was coming. She ignored the text message until I followed up with a hand-written letter via snail-mail. I also asked her to let me know when it arrived.

I haven't heard anything from her today, but the online service sent me an email announcing that the book had been delivered. Maybe she'll send me a text tomorrow, or maybe I'll have to send a hand-written letter to get her to acknowledge it. I'm not sure why she won't reply unless shoved. Maybe it's a problem with her phone, but I'm inclined to guess that she has just become so self-absorbed that it never occurs to her to reply to the messages she gets.

(Sigh.)

Yes, I know I'm making uncharitable assumptions about her. At this point I'm pretty sure I have a history of that.

You'd think after all this time it wouldn't be so easy for her to trigger me, wouldn't you? I would. But I guess I'm wrong.