Number Nine...Number Nine...

No, I'm not going to tell a long, sickly-sweet story about how we met and fell in love and it was all flowers and happiness. Though it was happiness. More Legos than flowers. And pirates. And trapezes and the Renaissance Faire. Coffee or Chai?

The Unbeatable Bonzuko Team (that would be Jason and Jenn) celebrates their 9th wedding anniversary today. And no, it doesn't feel like it's been that long. It feels like yesterday, and an eternity. See? I'm already sounding like a slow-dance song from the '80s. Instead, here's a highlight reel (from Jenn's brain) of that fateful week back in 1999.

• Swords presented together as an engagement present. We lived back in the house on Aurora then. Martial arts classes in the park under the storms.
• Roommates cheerfully toting cases (yes, plural) of Beamish stout, jugs of Brendan's irish cream and Jameson's whiskey. Heard of the Irish Car Bomb cocktail? We discover it makes a good breakfast drink.
• Either that Tuesday or Thursday went to Sushi Zanmai with all friends, local and otherwise. What ensued was the LARGEST boat of sushi anyone has ever seen. They play "Happy Birthday" for people who go there to celebrate-- a Japanese guy playing an electric mini-sax. We had what he called a "wedding song." It was odd. We tavern-cheered until the wait staff began to smile nervously. The tea room next to us joined in.
• Wednesday was the bachelor/bachelorette party. It was combined: we're freethinking that way. R. Bryan Meeks and Leah D'abate made an elaborate treasure map. Everyone dressed in pirate garb and split up into two crews: Jason's and Jenn's. We went out into wild Wednesday Boulder and did all the things on the map. Cryptic things we could interpret how we wanted. Highlight for Jenn: in response to the request "Obtain a blessing from a public servant" Jenn drunkenly walks up to a police officer in his car, explains her mission. He slowly gets out of the car, looks at her pirate crew sidelong, takes her hand, and haltingly wishes happiness and joy on her forever.
• Night before the wedding our friends haul us up to the mountain and engage in a hand-fasting ceremony. That was for them.
• Extremely windy wedding ceremony with a drumming minister, a forgetful photographer, and many crows overhead. Oh, this was at Flagstaff amphitheatre. Awesome view. Jenn's bridesmaids freeze to death, and Jenn is nearly carried away on a cloud of tulle.
• Trnasitional sushi at Zanmai, sporting newly-gifted crystal mala, we see the bridal suite @ Boulderado. Very burgundy and Victorian.
• Reception at Boulderado. Much red wine and not a drop on the dress. Drunken relatives and friends. I think Kristin caught the bouquet. Jesse DJs and ends the night with the closing "yub-yub" song from Jedi. Many relatives end up down in the Catacombs.

That's Jenn's fragmented memories. Drink a bottle of pirate rum or a car-bomb in honor of us today, and remember it if you were there! ~Jenn

The pictures above are what we both looked like when we first met. We did the dagger-throw trick at RenFaire and the rest is history. Pictured are: Jason in his Renfaire gear in '97, Jenn in rehearsal at Frequent Flyers Dance Co., also in '97. Ah, they grow up so fast...