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Happy Birthday, Ilse!

[SERIOUS CONTENT WARNING: THIS IS CHEESY!]

Today is Ilse's birthday and for me, this is the most important day of the year! This day celebrates the birth of my favorite person and I am beyond grateful to have her in my life. As you know, we met on Tinder about one and a half years ago and didn't expect anymore that we would find a person we would really like on this platform. Additionally, I had a serious shortcoming: my bangs! Ilse didn't like bangs at all, but she states that she does like them now. (I would give them up for her, though!) A couple of weeks later, we went on our first date; our second date eight days after that made it obvious: we might be right for each other.

Ever since, we are inseparable. We go on the most amazing vacations (remember our posts on Portugal and Belgium?), have outdoor adventures while hiking, canoeing, or cycling, and explore our city in the best way possible. But our biggest adventure so far is still to come: moving in together! We have just a few weeks left and I can't wait to completely live together with her (although we technically already do).

And when the global pandemic is over, I hope we'll be able to catch up on our missed travel plans to Tel Aviv and Cambodia, to visit the new places we added to our travel list in the meantime. We would need more than one lifetime to go everywhere we want to go, but that's okay as well. I know that we'll always make the best of everything. Or at least try to.

I also can't wait to go shopping for our first walking frames, get our first practical, short hair cut with a permanent wave, and dye our gray hair lavender. And if we should not be able to live independently until the end, we'll find a place where we'll play bingo and moan about the current state of society.

But for now, we'll enjoy what we have, knowing that everything to come will be good. Happy birthday, Ilse. I love you—always and forever.
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Location: Cologne, Germany

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