I glanced at my phone, opened my texts.

“Happy anniversary my beautiful, wonderful sister-in–law!”

Wait. That’s today?!

“How the f*** did we mess that up?” my husband Michael said to me. I could barely answer him I was laughing so hard.

For some reason, neither Michael nor I can remember if our anniversary is on the 16th or the 18th of June.

You would think we’d have this down after five years. “Six sixteen” does rolls off one’s tongue quite easily.

But so does “six eighteen eighteen.”

Okay. Maybe the latter not as well.

But the point is, I can never remember if it’s two sixes or two eights in our anniversary date. And neither can Michael.

So this morning, after I stopped laughing over the fact that we not only got the date wrong but also booked dinner and a hotel for the wrong night, I thought it about time I try to think of a way to remember this supposedly significant date in one’s life.

My first thought: I recalled that “six six six ” is somehow a bad number. So lucky for us we only have two sixes in our anniversary date.

But would I just remember “sixes are bad “and therefore think it’s the 18th?

This all reminds me of how much trouble I had remembering Michael’s birthday: 11/24/67. No one in my immediate family has a birthday in the twenties. We were born on the 3rd, 4th, 5th (three of us!), 10th, and 14th of various months.

My friend Tara –whom I’ve known for twenty-five years–was born in the 20s of October. I still can’t tell you exactly when. But our friend Jenn? March second. And I’ve known her just as long.

My maid-of-honor Dawn? Somewhere in the 20s of June. I can’t remember. My nieces? Sorry Ava and Bella. I can narrow it down to the twenties of November and October, respectively. But I got nothin’ after that.

And my husband’s birthday? It turns out that in our ten year relationship I’ve been asked for this date numerous times. I always knew it was the same month as mine (November) and in the 20s. Eventually I learned it was a couple days before or after my niece Ava’s birthday. But I could never remember which. And as you may recall, I can’t remember Ava’s birthday, anyway. So that didn’t help.

It took a few years before I noticed the even number pattern of 2-4-6 (I am a math tutor, after all). Then the pattern stops and we go consecutive. Thus, 2-4-6-7.

But an anniversary date in the teens? What were we thinking?

I know what we were thinking: We’ve got digital calendars to remind us. I guess neither of us thought we’d need to put the date in our calendars. Because who doesn’t remember their anniversary date? Us.

So today I’ll put June 18th 16th in my calendar. And if that doesn’t work, well, there’s always my sister-in-law Marci. And my father. And my friend Kristin. All of whom messaged us. All of whom somehow remember this date better than we do.