Soccer In New Orleans? It Could Happen.

Just to show you what kind of marriage Eyegal and I have, when it came to planning our 25th anniversary trip to New Orleans, one of the most discussed points on our itinerary was where we would watch the US v. Slovenia match on Friday morning.

The answer is our room at the Park View Guest House in the Garden District over a traditional Southern breakfast. Not exactly fish and chips at Wembley, but it’ll have to do.

I jest of course (slightly), but you know you’re made for each other when you can sort through your priorities like that and still stay married. Twenty-five years ago today, we both said “I do” at the Creve Coeur Overland Church of Christ, promised to stay with each other, walked back down the aisle to a grainy recording of Ronnie Milsap’s “What a Difference You’ve Made In My Life” (apparently all the chamber music quartets were already booked that weekend) and then went out and “Just Did It.”

You know, stayed together. And produced three soccer players. And bought enough Nikes to insure that Phil Knight’s great-great grandchildren get a college education.

But despite the rather inauspicious start of getting married in a second-ring suburb of St. Louis whose name is derived from the French for “heartbreak” (which is what Les Bleus seem determined to do to their partisans in the 2010 World Cup) we’ve stuck it out. Oh sure, we’ve both made our share of “howlers” (thanks to Robert Green and the Brits for bringing that little gem back into the lexicon), but when the preacher said “for better or for worse,” we were young and dumb enough to believe the man actually meant what he said.

So this week, we’ll be leaving the Zeta Theta Theta (ZΘΘ) House unattended for a few days (May God have mercy) and starting our 25th anniversary tour which will take us first through Oxford, Mississippi to satisfy our inner literary geek at Square Books, on to Greenwood for some blues, fine food and dear friends, and finally to “N’awlins” where it will reach its zenith on Friday morning when the Stars and Stripes take on Slovenia, a country so small that its national soccer team doesn’t even have a nickname.

I’m kidding. Sort of. About the zenith. But not about the nickname.

Soccer in New Orleans? It could happen. And maybe even a little more. But since “what happens in N’awlins stays in N’awlins,” don’t be expecting to read about it here.

6 Comments

  1. laurie

    We just did two weeks in Ireland and spent it hanging out in pubs listening to traditional Irish music.  My husband’s dream trip.  I said, “I don’t care where we go or what we do, as long as I’m with you.  Oh, and as long as I’m in a bar somewhere watching the Champions League final on May 22nd.”  And that’s what we did.  (This will be reversed after MY 50th birthday, when we will be doing two weeks of soccer in France.)  :-)Congratulations, Eyeguy and Eyegal!  May your home still be standing when you arrive home again.(And c’mon, you Yanks!)

  2. Mike the Eyeguy

    Thanks, Laurie. That must have been a dream trip, indeed. Our “dream trip” had to be put off this year because of all the heavy activity at Zeta Theta Theta House, but we’ll do it for our 27th. Oh, it’s a Rome/Florence tour: history, art, architecture, and Serie A football (or B or C, makes no difference).

  3. Mike the Eyeguy

    I have been informed by highly placed sources that we were actually married at Overland Church of Christ in Overland, Missouri, a first-ring suburb of St. Louis.

    But Eyegal did grow up in Creve Coeur and it just seemed to work better. Darn literalists.

  4. laurie

    Ooh, when you go to Italy, let me know.  My daughter studied Art History for a quarter over there and knows all the little secret non-touristy art things and cathedrals that are off the beaten path.  I’ll have her write up a list of must-sees for you! 

  5. eirenetheou

    i met a man years ago who had been married in the Church of Christ in Dixie, Alabama — in LA. When the preacher intoned, “until death do us part,” the whole congregation stood as one and exclaimed, “AAAAAAAAAAAAAmen!”That wife had long since departed, the man confessed, but Lower Alabama and the Church of Christ had left an indelible impression.God’s Peace to you.d

  6. Kristi

    I love reading about long, happy marriages. I don’t know exactly how to make a marriage work, (this frightens me a little since mine will be starting soon.) but I’m glad there are good examples out there.

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