Mark and I celebrate our anniversary on Valentine's Day, because that really is our anniversary,

and it's all because of an anti-Valentine's Day party. I ignored other would-be suitors and instead told Mark about the research I was doing for my thesis on Yakub Beg and Kashgaria's diplomatic relationship with the British in India. I already liked him, but the fact that he was actually interested in Yakub Beg didn't hurt. So every year we celebrate: today we celebrated by getting up very early and going to work and then going to a reading. We like to extend our celebrations over the course of a week, so we'll probably make some dinner tomorrow and exchange tokens of esteem.

As I've already mentioned, one of Mark's best qualities is the fact that he is not passive-aggressive. He does not get upset about something and then pretend to not be upset while he does nasty pesky things meant to be annoying. So, perhaps it's a strange quality to love in a person, but I really really appreciate the fact that Mark understands anger and hostility, because this means that he doesn't take his anger and hostility out on other people.

Mark is also a very good writer. I could not love a writer without loving their work. I like the fact that Mark is interested in both lyricism and social & political critique, but that these things don't occur in the work as either strident statements or abstract longings.

Mark is a good organizer. He's confident enough to get off his ass and do things--another quality I love. Like all of us, Mark does his share of complaining, but he doesn't whine. If Mark throws a party, it is a good party. He works well with others who are also willing to get off their ass. When he throws a party, he teams up with other people, and they throw a good party together. He starts reading series.

He talks to people he doesn't know at readings because he wants them to come back if they want to come back. He pays attention to social contexts outside of his immediate poetry and academic contexts.