Lucky 13

Today T and I are celebrating our 13th anniversary.  We've know each other since junior high.  He was one of my brother's friends and was a year ahead of me in school.  Though we didn't date until the very end of my senior year of high.  I do remember the first time I thought of him as more than one of my brother's friends.  I was a junior.  I had been sick that day and stayed home from school but had to run out to do something that afternoon.  When I came home there were mass quantities of old Volkswagens in the driveway and at the curb in front of our house.  My brother was (and still is) a Volkswagen fanatic - along with most of his friends back in high school.  I remember T coming over to me and asked me how my day was...which was a little odd but whatever, my brother's friends usually gave me a hard time.  I told him I was sick and he gave me a hug and said something along the lines of "oh, poor baby", but not quite patronizing.  I remember thinking, "Mmm, that was a nice hug."  But because he was friends with my brother, it was awkward. 

Fast forward to April 15th of my senior year (hey, maybe our date last Friday was an important date afternoon!), I was working part-time for an accounting firm and I got a little "thank you for working so hard for us during tax season" gift of free movie tickets.  On my way out of the building (the offices were on the second floor of a bank building) I ran into him on his way into the bank.  I was in the best mood as I was off early and had free stuff in my hand! I gave him a hug.  We hadn't seen each other in over a year and told him about my free movie tickets and he should call me and I'd take him out.  Mind you, I was rambling at this point in that over-the-top good mood only 17-year-old girls can do.  I never thought he'd call me.  But low and behold a week later (conveniently *after* his birthday) he called and asked me I wanted to go out.

You know what the weridest part of our first date was?  Telling my parents who was picking me up for a date.  They had always liked T, but it was weird that he was coming for me and not my brother.

This all happened in 1994.  We ended up splitting up for about year and half but ended up back together in the fall of 1996.  He proposed that Christmas.  We married in 1998 at the Justice of the Peace 10 days before he left for MEPS and basic training for the Air Force.

We had planned on getting married in August, but the quick decision for him to join the Air Force made me realize I wanted to exist on paper for the military.  Girlfriends aren't part of the package in the military.  At least he'd be getting some extra benefits from having a wife on the record.  We started our marriage with me putting him on a bus for Sacramento for MEPS.  I didn't see him again until June when he graduated from Basic Training.

We didn't end up living in the same house full time until the end of October.  I have to say that we didn't have the normal first year of marriage.  We didn't fight because we were just so dang happy to be together.  And here we are 3 moves, 3 kids, and numerous jobs later back where it all began.

Love you, babe.  I'd get girlified for no one else.