The Straight

We got married on 03.24.01 because you could scramble the numbers to get 01234..; there was a similar date in April, 4.23.01 which neither Steve nor Kristie seemed to remember when it actually came.

Mark had challenged Steve to find another good straight day to make a fuss about, particularly since he had missed 4.23.01 and he and Kristie weren't together for 4.21.01 which was 28 days (basically a month) of marriage. Steve hadn't found one yet but was working on it.

On 4.27.01, Steve went up to the Ordeal with his O-A Lodge to work. His parents' phone wasn't working so he left them his cell, taking along the new cell phone from work, which promptly died of a dead battery. On Saturday, about noon, Steve realized that he was looking at another straight day.

4.28.01 was not, of course, an obvious straight, but when you threw in the fact that it made 35 days, you wound up with 0123458.. Steve quickly realized that if he turned the 8 sideways¹, he'd have the infinity symbol and a plan was born.

He tried calling the florist in Marion, but there was no answer. At about 3:30, he was telling a friend about his crappy cell phone hindering his calling ability and the friend offered to let him make a call. Not wanting to run up huge bills, he called his mother to have her try to find a florist in Cadillac who could make the delivery.

She agreed and, while Steve figured things would work out, he was pretty nervous. The card, which would show the whole thing was pretty complicated and he had some doubt that the florist would get it right².

He returned home on Sunday to get the full story. His mother had called somewhere in Cadillac, but their delivery person had gone home. Luckily, the woman taking the order lived in Marion³ and agreed to deliver the flowers on her way home. A later call from Kristie confirmed not only that she had received the flowers, but that the card had been perfect.

1. Thankfully, Steve watched a lot of schoolhouse rock when he was younger.
2. On at least one previous occasion, Steve's witty inscription⁴ had been converted to gibberish by a florist.
3. Pretty amazing given that Marion is about a half hour drive from Cadillac.
4. That's his story and he's sticking to it.

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