MEHWWEDGE

It's done. I gone and done made Ms. Awesome into MRS. AWESOME.

It's a strange thing, being married. It's kinda like being painted with a coat of invisible paint. You know something's different, and everything just seems a little bit new, but really, as far as anyone's concerned, everything's still the same. I'd been living with Ms. Awesome for some 4 or 5 years now, but now we're MARRIED. Weird.

A few things have changed:

• I have to call her my "wife" now, which is far less hip than saying "girlfriend." That latter term is reserved for a whole other kind of relationship now.
  
• The relationship got a nice shot of "new" after the ceremony. Kinda like it did after we went from friends-to-dating, from dating-to-engaged, and so on. The difference is, this time there's no next elevation. I supposed we could go get "marrieder," but I'm not sure how that's done.
  
• We could go off and have a kid now, if we want. That's messed up. I mean, we could have done it before, but it's like, expected now. Shiver.
  
• Married couples seek us out to hang out. We used to hang out with almost exclusively singles, and we were the only real couple. Now hanging out with married people seems like the thing to do. Odd.
  
• Here's the weirdest thing: Everything that happens is now evaluated with an emphasis on "It's going to be like that for the rest of your life." If my wife drops pudding on the floor (literally, not a euphamism for taking a shit... but I think the example would still hold), I think to myself, "She's going to be dropping pudding on the floor for the rest of our lives." Bizaare.
  

We have a great relationship. We laugh at the same crap, we torment our cats in much the same way, etc. She's a fantastic cook, and I'm highly skilled at eating stuff. It's great. And honestly, I have to say that mehwwidge was one of the best things that has happened to me. Because despite the fact that not a lot has changed, some very important things have. No more doubts as to whether she digs me. No more wondering if she's the one. No more trying to figure out where to go when I've had a bad day or when I need someone to talk to. I can't describe how all that is different now, it just is. And that's cool. I imagine it'd be the same if we'd have a civil ceremony or some dude dressed like Rerun from What's Happening giving our vows. There's just something about the act of doing it that makes everything different and the same at the same time.

As a wedding present to ourselves, we're replacing the bumper of our car, which got sheared off in an accident in the parking lot of the airport after we finally returned home from our wedding trip. But we also snaked off some bucks to buy ourselves an Xbox 360 and three games: Dead or Alive 4, Tomb Raider: Legend, and Rumble Roses. The latter was mostly a joke until Mrs. Awesome saw the scantily clad ladies and put it on the "No, really" pile.

I love my new wife.