Getting Married in California

It’s funny, I was thinking last night before I went to sleep, how happy and excited and congratulatory the people we encountered were.  I remember thinking how it wouldn’t feel that different to be married and afterall, it was only recognized in a few places and of course our home state of Missouri wasn’t one of those places.  And that there was a possibility that California could have the right revoked within the next few weeks.  It didn’t make me any less excited to be there doing what I was doing.  I didn’t think about the large number of rights I would have there in California, at least while I was there.  It became evident to me on the second day of our marriage, when I went to rent a car.  As I was chatting with the Enterprise Rep. as he did the pre-inspection of the car I was renting, he asked why I was in California and I told him.  He, like everyone else we had encountered, congratulated me, then he told me something that I had never considered and probably wouldn’t have.  He told me that since I was married now, my wife could drive the car as well.  This one little comment, that I hadn’t anticipated hearing, was the first time someone had referred to “my wife”.  It made it clear that things would be different after being married, regardless of whether Missouri recognized it or not and at least for that day we had a few more rights that we could take advantage of.  Unfortunately, Marcy hadn’t visited San Diego before, so I drove the whole time.  I drove her to La Jolla to see the sunset and walk along the beach.  We spent the rest of that night driving around San Diego, from beach to beach and all over downtown.  The next morning she went to the last of her meetings and I walked into downtown to pick up our wedding certificate.  That afternoon, we caught our return flight to St. Louis, for a honeymoon that we are still enjoying today.