Simply meant to be

Yesterday in the car, I was stopped at a red light briefly behind a car with one of those vanity license plate frames. It said "Slee & Shlee- Simply Meant to Be!"

I spent the rest of my drive home pondering who Slee and Shlee are- where the nicknames came from, what they look like, how long they've been together. Are they gay or straight? Are they silly, private joke nicknames, or are they abbreviations of their married names- Sherry Lee and Sam Lee, for example. Or Soon-Yi Lee and Shawn Lee. Or Sandy Lee and Shepard Lee. Or Shaniqua Lee and Simon Lee? Or Sheryl Lee and Samantha Lee? The combinations are infinite.

What do two people who make grand public gestures of love (well, as grand as any declaration on a Nissan can be) have in common? What do they fight about? What are their hobbies? What are their jobs? Are they waiting impatiently for an adoption to go through? Saving their money for a trip to Angkor Wat? Hosting boy scout meetings? Walking their four Weimerauners? Compulsively cleaning their condo? Do they share the Nissan in question? And if not, which one of them drives it? Do their desks at work reflect their "meant to be" status, with trinkets and framed pictures and mylar balloons?

Since I have small children, the opportunities for people watching have receded as I focus my attention to my children's whereabouts and safety. Behind the wheel, running errands, reading license plate frames is what it's come to.