{"id":39088,"date":"2018-02-15T23:58:21","date_gmt":"2018-02-16T04:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=39088"},"modified":"2018-02-16T00:33:35","modified_gmt":"2018-02-16T05:33:35","slug":"throwback-thursday-partying-like-its-1998","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2018\/02\/throwback-thursday-partying-like-its-1998\/","title":{"rendered":"Throwback Thursday: Partying Like It&#8217;s 1998"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MrB and I are celebrating our 20th date-a-versary today. That means that on this day in 1998, he and I started &#8230; um &#8230; &#8220;going steady&#8221;? &#8220;Became an item&#8221;? I&#8217;m not sure how to word it in a way that doesn&#8217;t make y&#8217;all feel like &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<div class=\"tenor-gif-embed\" data-postid=\"7504963\" data-share-method=\"host\" data-width=\"100%\" data-aspect-ratio=\"0.8714285714285714\"><a href=\"https:\/\/tenor.com\/view\/phoebe-buffay-coughing-choking-funny-gif-7504963\">Phoebe Buffay GIF<\/a> from <a href=\"https:\/\/tenor.com\/search\/phoebe-gifs\">Phoebe GIFs<\/a><\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" async src=\"https:\/\/tenor.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/center><\/p>\n<p>It  wasn&#8217;t our first social outing together. In fact, it was supposed to be our last. MrB, who had recently found himself single, had wined and dined me a couple of times. He even took me to the ballet, because he was quite sure that all ladies loved the ballet. (I appreciate dance much more now than I did then.) I thought MrB was a nice guy, but I was 30 and he was 55. Also, from 1992 to 1995, MrB had been <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2014\/04\/never-is-the-next-new-thing-my-bio-and-columbia-spectator\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">my boss&#8217;s boss at the Wall Street Journal<\/a>, and, even though by 1998, I&#8217;d been at CNN for three years, that past professional relationship made me like &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<div class=\"tenor-gif-embed\" data-postid=\"4524788\" data-share-method=\"host\" data-width=\"100%\" data-aspect-ratio=\"1.6266666666666667\"><a href=\"https:\/\/tenor.com\/view\/disney-snow-white-scared-heck-no-hell-no-gif-4524788\">Oh Hell No GIF<\/a> from <a href=\"https:\/\/tenor.com\/search\/disney-gifs\">Disney GIFs<\/a><\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" async src=\"https:\/\/tenor.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/center><\/p>\n<p>At some point, I sent him a rejection letter &#8212; handwritten on paper &#8212; that said I &#8220;respected him as a journalist,&#8221; but MrB, being an ultra-optimistic guy, didn&#8217;t notice the rejection part. I decided to treat him to dinner to clarify his status while &#8220;paying him back&#8221; for ballet-ticket expenses and whatnot. You know how it is with a lot of men who aren&#8217;t MrB (#NotAllMen, duh, but a helluva lot of men): Once they&#8217;ve spent money on you, they think you &#8220;owe&#8221; them. I always liked to be sure I didn&#8217;t have an outstanding tab. The only problem with my scheme was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2007\/09\/loyalty-and-devotion\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">that when MrB came to pick me up, he cleverly befriended my beloved rescue dog Mr. Chubbs<\/a>. Mr. Chubbs&#8217;s happiness was very important to me, so, eventually, I had to marry his new friend. It did take a while: MrB and I didn&#8217;t move in together until 2000, and we didn&#8217;t get married until 2001. Of course, when we did finally get hitched, Mr. Chubbs was there. <\/p>\n<p><center><div id=\"attachment_39089\" style=\"width: 508px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2011\/07\/what-wendy-wore-ten-years-ago-today\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-39089\" src=\"http:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/dogs-at-wedding.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"498\" height=\"489\" class=\"size-full wp-image-39089\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/dogs-at-wedding.jpg 498w, https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/dogs-at-wedding-300x295.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 498px) 100vw, 498px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-39089\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mr. Chubbs (right) and my parents&#8217; dog, Molly, were honored guests at our wedding.<\/p><\/div><\/center><\/p>\n<p>The photo below from later in 1998 &#8212; not the actual date-a-versary, but it&#8217;s close enough.<\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BfNVurdDJF6\/\" data-instgrm-version=\"8\" style=\" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:658px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);\">\n<div style=\"padding:8px;\">\n<div style=\" background:#F8F8F8; line-height:0; margin-top:40px; padding:50.0% 0; text-align:center; width:100%;\">\n<div style=\" background:url(data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAABGdBTUEAALGPC\/xhBQAAAAFzUkdCAK7OHOkAAAAMUExURczMzPf399fX1+bm5mzY9AMAAADiSURBVDjLvZXbEsMgCES5\/P8\/t9FuRVCRmU73JWlzosgSIIZURCjo\/ad+EQJJB4Hv8BFt+IDpQoCx1wjOSBFhh2XssxEIYn3ulI\/6MNReE07UIWJEv8UEOWDS88LY97kqyTliJKKtuYBbruAyVh5wOHiXmpi5we58Ek028czwyuQdLKPG1Bkb4NnM+VeAnfHqn1k4+GPT6uGQcvu2h2OVuIf\/gWUFyy8OWEpdyZSa3aVCqpVoVvzZZ2VTnn2wU8qzVjDDetO90GSy9mVLqtgYSy231MxrY6I2gGqjrTY0L8fxCxfCBbhWrsYYAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); display:block; height:44px; margin:0 auto -44px; position:relative; top:-22px; width:44px;\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BfNVurdDJF6\/\" style=\" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;\" target=\"_blank\">Together TWENTY YEARS as of &#8230; today. #timeflies #couples #theysaiditwouldntlast<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;\">A post shared by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/wendybrandes\/\" style=\" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;\" target=\"_blank\"> Wendy Brandes<\/a> (@wendybrandes) on <time style=\" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;\" datetime=\"2018-02-15T07:09:28+00:00\">Feb 14, 2018 at 11:09pm PST<\/time><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async defer src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Sorry for confusing peeps on Instagram with my caption for this picture. A few people thought my saying we were &#8220;together&#8221; meant we were married 20 years, but our 20th wedding anniversary is July 22, 2021. You don&#8217;t need to rush out and buy us any <a href=\"http:\/\/www.anniversary.us.com\/20thanniversary.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">china<\/a> right now.<\/p>\n<p>I seem to have misplaced the letter of rejection that MrB mistook for a letter of encouragement, but <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2016\/02\/throwback-thursday-18-years-and-four-days-ago\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">I do have the note MrB sent me on Feb. 21, 1998, thanking me for his first-ever delivery from Amazon<\/a>. MrB still writes very detailed, gracious thank you notes but he sends them by email now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MrB and I are celebrating our 20th date-a-versary today. That means that on this day in 1998, he and I started &#8230; um &#8230; &#8220;going steady&#8221;? &#8220;Became an item&#8221;? I&#8217;m not sure how to word it in a way that doesn&#8217;t make y&#8217;all feel like &#8230; Phoebe Buffay GIF from Phoebe GIFs It wasn&#8217;t our&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2018\/02\/throwback-thursday-partying-like-its-1998\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39089,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[669,110,29,41,723,607,550],"tags":[1501],"class_list":["post-39088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-about-wendy","category-anniversaries","category-dogs","category-pictures-of-me","category-special-occasions","category-throwback-thursday","category-vintage-wendyb-photos","tag-date-a-versary","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39088"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39101,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39088\/revisions\/39101"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}