The legality of love
Rather than hanging around the criminal court, I went next door yesterday to check out the married and soon-to-be unmarried lives. We were hoping to find someone actually filing for divorce, to see if it was joyous ("He was cheating on me and I'm out of here!") or jerky ("I wanted her to always remember this day!"). But, since the five filers (it's not a big divorce day, that comes later) did so when I was elsewhere, the angle had to change. So we got this:
VAN NUYS - For Valentine's Day, Edgar J. Gutierrez buttoned up a black dress shirt, took the hand of Jessica Sanchez and got himself married.
The 19-year-old Van Nuys man had dated the UCLA math major for three years and got engaged last month. They'd made it through good times and bad, so why not make it official on what some consider the most romantic day of the year?
"I just hope things work out and it'll be like the first three years," Sanchez said, holding her betrothed's hand in the waiting room at the Los Angeles County Registrar/Recorder's Office in Van Nuys.
"Yeah, hopefully, we won't get divorced," Gutierrez said, smiling.
If so, they certainly wouldn't be the first. For all the happy couples cooing "I love you" on Valentine's Day, there are plenty who utter less printable phrases not far away.
On the same day the county brought in extra clerks to handle the rush of new nuptials, five sad souls filed for divorce only yards away at Los Angeles Superior Court.
If you're into this kind of thing (and judging by the hits and the one comment, not many of you are), click here. It was a good idea, but, alas, I couldn't pull it off.
Leave a comment