It's too bad dimly lit bars aren't better for photography, because that photo is GOLDEN. :)

This is turning out to be the most adult month of my life. Not only have we bought a condo and gotten a mortgage, but because we're not married, we're getting wills, living wills, and trading powers of attorney for property and personal care (lots more info here). It basically just means that if either of us gets hit by a bus and goes into a coma, the other can make decisions about health care and make sure the mortgage gets paid in the meantime. Without those documents, we wouldn't even have the right to be in the other's hospital room if something super-bad happened.

We've also been reading Unmarried to Each Other by the leaders of the Alternatives to Marriage Project in the States. I've been really impressed with it, and managed to read half of it in an afternoon. It's very readable, has tons of citations for further reading, covers a lot of ground, and by this point, I feel like having the authors over for coffee. A lot of the legal stuff in it is different than what we face here (e.g. gay marriage is legal, common law is legal everywhere and works differently, universal health care, etc.). It's interesting to read about so many other people's experiences with cohabitation without marriage and their various reasons for it (or lack of reason to change). I grew up with marriage and while I've never been the "planning her wedding since she was five" type of girl, I think I've always assumed that I would get married. Because that's what you do, right? You find someone and if it works, you marry them. And sure, you're already committed and you're already living together and having sex and parenting two cats, but you still have to get married. Right? Because... otherwise... something. Especially if you're going to have kids because... well, I guess children's rights in Canada are based on parental status and don't have jack shit to do with the parents' marital status, which makes sense, but if you have kids and you're not married then... um... !!! The bogeyman! Or something!

I thought I was done questioning my Major Assumptions About Life, but here we are. Hey, at least I get to joke that if I never get married, I haven't been having pre-marital sex at all. Jesus likes that better, right?