I bought Sam’s Christmas present about two weeks ago off of eBay.

It came in last Monday and I went down to the office to pick it up (all of our packages go to the apartment office to be held). Its a pretty big package. Holly, our building manager, had let me know it was there.

I pick it up and Holly asks what it is. I tell her its Sam’s Christmas present.

Holly’s exact words are: “But that’s way too big to be a ring.”

Holly loves us. We’re good tenants, we pay on time, we don’t bitch about small things, and we stop by and chat with her often. She always tells us we’re some of her favorite tenants and from the excitement in her voice when she sees I can tell its true.

“When are you going to do it? I can’t wait because you two are some of my favorite people!”

I tell her eventually to end this part of the conversation.

You see, its not that I don’t love Sam. I do. And its not like I’m going any where. I’m not. However I’m not sure marriage is important to me. Well I know its not. Its such a religious thing in my mind. And I’m not religious. Sam feels the same way. If marriage were a governmental thing without any religious twinge, I may feel differently. And I know you can get married without a church, or any religious institution, but living in the era of constant politics has made marriage a religious institution.

When religion is used as a basis to deny two people the opportunity to get married, I don’t care to get married. Period. That’s it. That’s how I feel about marriage. If the government changed the laws so that marriage wasn’t the word they used, instead it was civil union for everyone. Then yeah, lets get a civil union. Let religions have the word marriage, under the books and law it will be called civil union. Sam and I have joked about that. Civil Union. But regardless of what is said a Civil Union is not the same as a Marriage, and having two words to mean one thing during governmental law automatically makes them not equal. It has that feel. Only we, the right folk, can have this word. All you people we don’t like what you are doing, you get to have this word over here. Don’t worry, it’s exactly the same thing as our word when it comes to laws and rights, but its not our word. You can’t have that word.

I need a good happy relationship. Marriage, that’s like an end game, or a turning point in a relationship. I don’t need a relationship with turning points. I just want a good relationship that keeps growing. And ours does.

And Sam, and myself, are happy with our relationship.

Cause its a great one.