The Steel Anniversary

My wedding anniversary date is just around the corner. It would have been our 11th year. The traditional anniversary gift for 11 years is steel. I would have most likely figured out a way to incorporate that into the gift I would have purchased.


Now I'm steeling myself for all of the emotional crap.


A few months ago - even a few weeks ago - I thought to myself: I don't want to see anyone on that day. I just want to be alone with my thoughts. It's the first of many milestones I'll have to deal with this year, and I don't want anyone seeing me. I'll probably be a mess.


Well, dear friends, I've decided not to be in mourning on that day. But I will be surrounded by steel! My two partners in fun, shopping and friendship and I are going to the Eastern State Penitentiary's Terror Behind The Walls attraction. It's the remains of the prison - just a bit jazzed up and scary as all get out during the Fall.


From the Eastern State Penitentiary web site:

Opened in 1829 as part of a controversial movement to change the behavior of inmates through "confinement in solitude with labor," Eastern State Penitentiary quickly became one of the most expensive and most copied buildings in the young United States. It is estimated that more than 300 prisons worldwide are based on the Penitentiary's wagon-wheel, or "radial" floor plan.

Some of America's most notorious criminals were held in the Penitentiary's vaulted, sky-lit cells, including bank robber Willie Sutton and Al Capone. After 142 years of consecutive use, Eastern State Penitentiary was completely abandoned in 1971, and now stands, a lost world of crumbling cellblocks and empty guard towers.


Yeah, okay...maybe that description isn't exactly appealing, but we had such a blast last year. I screamed-laughed my head off as the other two girls led the way through the one-hour tour. As is custom, we'll also most likely be shivering from the pouring rain that also occurs every single time we go out. I'm not kidding! Most times, we have to go and get towels and wring our clothes out. Maybe in our previous lives we were rain makers.


I have a picture of the three of us from last year. We are freezing our butts off, and soaked to the bone, and yet you'd never know it. We're smiling ear to ear in the shot.


This year, I'm especially looking forward to it. The girls will be coming to my house, kicking a frozen margarita bucket, and staying over for girl talk and some fun time away from regular responsibilities as moms and wives.


For every memory that makes me sad, there are two that make me realize I'm going to be okay.

Now, if I can just figure out a good hangover remedy...