Eight

We have a six year old, a five year old, and a one year old. The other thing we have is eight years of marriage. Well, if we are not counting in the cumulative sense. I was trying to do the math. No, not that math. The kids math. Three kids in eight years. With any luck we should be married another forty years. So that means 15 kids total.

On our anniversary Yang and I got dressed up – this is to say I wore something besides shorts for the first time this summer – and had a very typical Beijing night on the town. First stop, the a Budapest themed restaurant cleverly called  “Budapest”. Food was delish although it doesn’t appear Hungarians have a lot of use for dishes without meat. Next stop was the 65th floor of Yintai center where a couch with a view has a minimum spend of 1000 kuai. We settled for bar stools and looked east instead of north. The bar had a decent but not busy  business, mostly filled with people with too much money, too much time, or too much of themselves. In a  non mutually exclusive sense. We headed down to the sixth floor, another bar, this time filled with people assured of themselves. That is to say the hunters, hunted, and captured. We ordered a drink and reflected on eight years and that this place was better than Centro.

We discussed an anniversary trip to Spain in September and who knows, maybe we will go. But then it comes back to leaving the kids at home for a week and we think better of it. We especially think better of it if we considering taking them with us. So, we headed to Xian for the weekend, played tourist, played newlywed. We visited a site of the “buddha bone”, the only remaining physical artifact from the original buddha person. Outside the room with the bone there were these chinese temple animal stone creatures and when Yang heard the tour guide say touching the claws improves your Majong luck, she went straight to it.

Nearby, we went a a large complex built for an emperors concubine; which was kind of ironic since it was our anniversary trip. I won’t comment on the concubine part except to say that the sculpture of her was very impressive.

And discovered that we actually do get a long really well. That the rush of our daily lives and the overseeing of three kids hasn't changed the basics.

And to paraphrase a song that has been on my mind recently – With all my expectations long abandoned and my solitary nature non withstanding you’re…my stunning mystery companion…baby you’ve had the best of me but you can take another eight years and be sure.

And as we descend into Beijing Yang is laid out over three seats trying to get some rest. She sleeps remarkably well when travelling. As well as bad as I.