I got married in 2000 on the one year aniversary of my wife and I dating. We'd lied I. San Dieg and had gone to Vegas for a weekend, and it wasn't until we were there and our luggage unpacked that I stopped to consider that I actually hate gambling, and Vegas is a fairly dumb weekend getaway choice if you can't stand gambling or casino atmosphere. So I was fairly bored all weekend, and all the idiots running around Vegas acting like they're high rollers when they're just regular fat people wearing jorts with sandals and socks made everything no fun, and the wife and I had been joking about getting married, and I figured, "fuck it" and asked her if she seriously wanted to marry me.
After it was determined that I had put about as much forethought into this as I had my decision to go to Vegas, she said yes, and we went to the courthouse and got a liscence and drove to this drive up chapel and did it.
I guess I'd say I was happy from the get go the way my black lab is always happy even if you step in his food. Sort of like, " Eh fuck it... I'm having a good time, and things could be worse." At the time, we were fairly broke, living with two roommates in a two bedroom apartment, and all of our shit fit in one tiny room and I figured if this adventure ever turns south, she's gonna get about two surfing videotapes and a half of an eighth of pot out of me in the divorce settlement, which isn't too bad a beating to take as far as divorces go.
It wasn't until about two wars later we had a big public wedding, because prior to that only a couple friends and the IRS knew we were married. I'm pretty sure I was misalign for the ride.
I think the o e time that we were possibly sort of unhappily married was durring her first pregnancy. We'd moved back to Montana where I'm from, and she was homesick for California, and she was pregnant. She didn't really know what it felt like to be pregnant, and hormonal, and crazy; and I didn't know what to do with a person that was crying all the time or yelling at me because a commercial about cellular phone service made her emotional. I was also a poor provider of weird shit she had late night cravings for. there've been times where being a husband might feel like a job or a bit of a chore, or just something you do, but I wasn't really unhappy about it. I have three kids that made me pretty happy and proud of them in their own individual ways. I have a big dumb dog, and I get to mostly do whatever I want to, and whatever I want to do usually involves spending time with them, so I guess that would qualify me as happy.
I'd say I've been happy for all 15 years, but just in different ways, depending on how old I am or what my maturity level has been or what my underlining priorities are. Happy married when you're eloping in Vegas and smoking pot all the time, is a different hapiy married when you have three kids and a mortgage and different responsibilities.