Crystal Anniversary

In honor of my 15th anniversary with the lovely Mrs. Jay, I've decided to chronicle 15 great memories from our years together:

1. Getting together for the first time to go to Paradise Valley Mall on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 15 years ago for a great two hours of shopping to be seen. Our moms dropped us off, thus starting a friendship that would weather the years and their patience.
2. Convincing "Pat" (an ambiguous-looking, role-playing girl named Shelley) that she should give us goodies from the Science Club's bake sale for free. Mean, yes, but those were some excellent rice krispie treats. Equal parts krispie and 'mallow.
3. Attending the temple weddings of each other (granted, I had to wait outside for hers because both of us couldn't be brides at 19) and each other's siblings (she stood in for me at my sister's because I was kind of busy with that whole mission thing).
4. Kisses, crushes and more boys because we were crazy for them and they were crazy for us ... about a third of the time, depending on our current fashion craze (other people's vacation T's, rockabilly dresses, swimwear, handmade clothing, etc.)
5. 5. Walking to school when we missed the bus one day only to find a team of horses charging up the road towards us. Luckily, they managed to pass us and our breakfast popsicles by without any harm before turning right onto a major road. To this day, my mother doesn't believe this story, but would it really make it onto the list if weren't true? Maybe, but I promise this one isn't a lie.
6. Getting fake IDs so we could attend the LDS Institute dances at ASU while we were still in high school. Try explaining to your non-Mormon friends why you would go to all the trouble to get a fabricated state identification card only to have your age listed as 18. But, hey, that's how we met all those hot guys who totally freaked when we finally revealed our real ages. At least our robot skills improved.
7. Camping on the beach year after year. I promise I'll go again soon, Mrs. Jay, but only if we can cruise the campsites looking for cute local boys like old times. Shakara.
8. Spending a great nine months in AZ last year playing with her two charming boys and cruising Marshall's for new inventory.
9. Dressing up like Jem and the Holograms on a regular basis during high school school so we could have a "Battle of the Bands" with our rivals/friends in costume, The Misfits.
10. Getting in trouble at girl's camp for writing on the cabin walls. Not so much for the grafitti itself since tagging was a hallowed tradition at Lo Mia, but because we'd written "We're the number one preggos!" We didn't even realize that might be an inappropriate allusion to teenage pregnancy. We just liked babies and wish we had them already. But it all was worth it when Mrs. Jay recently texted me: "I'm the number one preggo!" Sometimes childhood pranks make for great adult announcements.
11. Surviving a could-have-been-much-worse car accident in Rico's tiny Geo Metro because we'd convinced him to race up the dirt median so we could catch up with our friends on the highway. Who knew there was a cement retaining wall in our way? We soon did.
12. Spending many weekend nights at late-night establishments like Kinko's, Walmart and Target because we didn't want to go to alcohol-themed school parties. Everyone at school just assumed we were too cool to make it. Really, we were honing our ability to weed the good from the bad on clearance racks.
13. Having Mrs. Jay fly out for a long weekend on a few days' notice because my new job in Evanston hadn't started yet and I was bored. After a few minutes, it was just like old times: Mrs. Jay convinced the sailors on the Metra to give her a taste of their food and I behaved in a self-deprecating manner while shopping. "Classic!"(clap)
14. Worrying about that poor guy, James Johnson, and his sisters with so many problems.
15. All the late nights chatting, all the telephone conversations, all the unspoken sentiments and all the good food. All the years together and all the years to come. You're one of a kind, Mrs. Jay and I'm glad I found you. Cheers!