Allow Me to (Re)Introduce...

"She was a fast machine. She kept her motor clean. She was the best damn woman I had ever seen." -AC/DC, You Shook Me All Night

There is a reason I used that line from that song to begin this post. Today my wife and I celebrate our ninth wedding anniversary. During the planning process, the only snag we really hit - except for the occasional grenade thrown by our meddling mothers - was the first dance. We couldn't agree on a wedding song.

Whenever we'd reach an impasse, I would suggest the song above to break the tension. To this day, my wife will point to herself and give a sarcastic wink and thumbs up whenever we hear it.

We rejected a lot of good songs, in fact. Among them, "Crash" by The Dave Matthews Band. This was the early favorite. If one song was our song at the time, this was it. But we didn't feel comfortable dancing in front of family, especially some of the older folks, to lyrics like "Hike up your skirt a little more and show your world to me."

Then there is "Lovely Day" by Bill Withers. This would have been it had either of us possessed any sort of rhythm to confidently fast dance in front of 200 people. We settled on "Someone Like You" by Van Morrison. Sweet and simple:

I've been searching my whole life for someone exactly like you.
Someone like you to make it all worthwhile.
Someone like you to keep me satisfied.
Someone exactly like you.

Our search for a wedding song is similar to my search for a new way to identify my wife in this blog. After all, I refer to our daughter as "the Peanut." It only seems right that my wife has a snazzy nickname of her own. But for months I've been hitting the same dead end.

My Muse/Boss/Editor chose this picture 

Here are the contenders:

I describe her in my about page as "My Muse." But that's only part of her role in my life. A big one, but just a part.

"The Editor?" She does have final say over what gets published in this blog. (So she thinks.) But that makes her sound like she stifles me. She doesn't.

"The Boss?"  Too trite and cliche.

I toyed with "The Megulator," which is a play on her actual name. Her brother and I often use this name to describe her when she's being particularly anal, controlling, and bossy. But no. Only we get to call her that.

This year as a joke, I started referring to her as "the lady I live with" in status updates on my personal Facebook page. Or "The Lady" for short. This in response to an app that told me the word I used most often in status updates in 2010 was... drumroll... wife.

She is a constant source of inspirational and humorous material.

She runs our family. She's in charge of the finances, the calendar, and most important... she keeps us emotionally centered.

In her actual job, director is part of her title. She manages several departments and a staff of eighteen people.

My Director & the Peanut

In my job as a television news producer, there may be no other person who is more crucial to my show's success (and to my sanity) when we are live on the air than my director. He or she has bailed me out countless times when things could have gone terribly wrong. Carried me when I was not at my best. We're in contsant communication. But sometimes we communicate without even talking. My director is always looking for ways to make me and my show better. My director always has my back.

Our life is a show. I am its producer. But I couldn't do it without... "My Director."

Give her a round of applause, and please make a note of it in your programs.

Happy Anniversary to the girl of my dreams. And the best Director I've ever had.

(Luna, incidentally, will always be simply referred to as...Luna)