I often tell people that Valtteri and I got married “in the height of the pandemic.” But, as we now know, April 2020 was just the beginning of the COVID era—for Europe, for America, for the whole world.
Here in Finland, where the vaccine hasn’t yet been made available to the masses, we are still very much in the throes of the pandemic. In fact, the restrictions in Helsinki this April are actually more severe than they were last year, which means that Valtteri and I spent our first anniversary much like we did our wedding day: inside, at home, enjoying the latest kitchen appliance we splurged on, which in this case is a deluxe airfryer.
I’m well aware that our first anniversary gift is supposed to be “paper.” And, in a way, ours was. The Airfryer came with an instruction manual. Neither of us will ever read it but, for some reason, we will save it forever, which makes it sentimental.
Small appliances, for those of you keeping track, is actually a fourth-year anniversary gift. So, in another, more presumptuous way, Valtteri and I have already met that tradition too. And I think it’s only fair that we get to skip ahead to the good stuff since we were well into our 30s when we finally got married. We waited all those years, attending wedding after wedding, dragging along other, lesser dates to countless engagement parties, coming home several hundred dollars poorer after international bachelor(ette) parties.
It’s about time we get to celebrate ourselves! And since we have to do it without the benefit of a bar or restaurant, then I think we deserve a bonus. Bring me the biggest small appliance!
One of the more confusing aspects of the Finnish lockdown is that retailers of all kinds are open. Essential, non-essential – makes no difference here in Helsinki. You can’t go to a restaurant or a gym, but if you want to spend the day browsing throw pillows or audio equipment, that’s just fine. Enjoy!
Perhaps it says something about me that I see the flawed logic in allowing non-essential shopping yet still visited a big box retailer to pick out my extremely non-essential Airfryer in person. At a minimum, it says that I’m bored. But I would argue that it also says that I am lazy. I went to the store because I was hoping someone could help pick out a model for me. But, of course, no one was around, which just left me reading taglines off the packaging to my increasingly embarrassed and distressed spouse.
“Choose. Press. Done!” I shouted down the aisle. “I like the sound of that!”
“Which one is that?” Valtteri replied.
“Effortless!” I replied. “Exclamation points!!”
“The model number,” he insisted, taking out his phone to search for reviews.
“Philips Airfryer XXL Premium,” I said.
“We do not need that one,” Valtteri answered, putting his phone back in his pocket.
“But it cooks a whole chicken!” I insisted.
“We do not need an extra, extra, large Airfryer,” he argued. “We do not even need a normal airfryer.”
“Oh?” I countered, raising my eyebrows. “What do you expect me to do? Use a pan? Like a peasant?”
That’s what I say whenever Valtteri is giving me a hard time about buying something that he considers frivolous like a styling tool or brown rice—I accuse him of mistaking me for a clod. If he so much as blinks in response, I start doing long division in my head, working out how many milk frothers I can buy for the amount he once insisted we spend on a Finnish lamp. Usually, he knows to shut up before it comes to that—not because he sees my point but because he knows that I will get progressively louder and more antagonistic about making it if he continues to engage.
What works to my advantage is that Valtteri is a Finnish man. For him, there is no experience more unpleasant than having strangers stare as an English-speaking woman reads promotional copy off a box.
And that is the story of how I got an Airfryer. Extra extra happy anniversary to me.
The Airfryer did not disappoint and I’m happy to have one—perhaps not as happy as I would have been to go to a restaurant and celebrate my anniversary, but hey. What can you do? Rules are rules and ours will be in place until April 18 at the earliest.
“We can go out after that,” I told Valtteri on the walk home. “Where do you want to go?”
“We have the Airfryer now,” he answered. “What do we need restaurants for?”
“But I like to get dressed up,” I whined.
“Well no one’s stopping you!” he answered, loud enough to turn the heads of a couple across the street. “You can get dressed up! Wear whatever you want!”
Mark my words: By the time we hit the ten-year mark, Valtteri will be the one in the refrigerator aisle, shouting back to me about the ice cube maker he needs, the deep freeze drawer he has been missing all his life. And believe you me, I will get it for him, so long as he takes me out to dinner first.
The course of the vaccine rollout has been interesting. Here in Idaho it’s now open to everyone over 16. Most members of our family have had both doses and we were able to have Easter dinner with everyone on our patio! Yay!
I don’t mean to gloat. For the past year I’ve been extolling the virtues of the European approach to the virus, ever since my son was restricted to his dorm last spring when all of Austria went into lockdown and they seemed to have a better handle on things. Now Austria is in lockdown part II, there’s a shortage of the vaccine there, and he may not be able to get it in time to come home for summer break. Meanwhile, the knuckle draggers here could totally kick this thing in the butt, but instead are having mask burning protests and refusing the vaccine because of some vague “big pharma” thing and/or a weird allegiance with our former president. I feel like we don’t deserve science.
Anyway, way to make the most of things. Congrats on your air fryer and happy anniversary! Our 30th anniversary is this summer and we STILL don’t have an air fryer. I feel robbed.
Ha! I don’t think it’s a gloat at all – I’m glad! Many of my friends and family have the vaccine too and I think that’s great. I’m sure we’ll get it here eventually too. Until then – and I hope this doesn’t sound like a gloat – I’d still rather spend the next year locked down in Finland than have had to ensure the past year in the States. And I am convinced now that the disaster was a matter of leadership, which is to say the worst of it could have been avoided.
Oh and I agree we don’t deserve science. Although before doctors started taking the vaccine publicly, I will admit that I was REALLY hesitant about getting it once available. Because I may trust science but I do not trust big pharma.
Happy Anniversary!
thank you!