1) you will be asked at least once a week - "how's married life?" the people who ask you such nonsense are not people who deserve to know the intimate details of your fabulous life, so you quickly develop a stock answer like "same as non-married life" or "just fine, thank you" to deal with these inquiries.

2) married life is actually nothing like "non-married life" - even if you lived together for nearly a decade before tying the knot. the change is indescribeable and subtle and wonderful.

3) avoiding certain obligations with the excuse of needing to be with the "husband" holds infinitely more weight than the days when you needed to see your "boyfriend," "significant other" or even "fiance."

4) your love does seem to evolve and grow each day, and you become concious of this fact and savour it.

5) changing your name in every day use is exciting and fun, changing your name via paperwork can wait.

6) just one day shy of one year of married life, your husband will chide the cat, and in a state of confusion call the cat by your name.

7) enjoying the first year of marriage becomes a defacto excuse for any sort of procrastination - especially on weekends.

we, mr and mrs jaimie keller declare our first anniversary - the third of may, 2004 - our pocket lint anniversary. happy day to you mister, i love you - and many more.

(is our second anniversary going to be the belly button lint anniversary or the flug anniversary?)