It was twenty years ago today that I had my first date with my husband. I was 18 and had just started college 3 weeks before. I was living away from home for the first time, excited about starting a new phase of my life, anxious about classes and having to grow up, but most importantly I was ready to PARTY! I didn't have a boyfriend when I left for school, and meeting that special someone was NOT on my agenda. Those first few weeks were just what I had imagined. I was rooming with my best friend, several of my other closest friends were also going to school there, the new people I had met were great fun, the parties were good and I even enjoyed my classes.
Then one day my roommate's "boyfriend" knocked on our door, and changed my life forever. He wanted us to go to a party at his fraternity house. It was going to be a casual closed party and in his crass words, "the more babes he brought the more points he scored", what an ass. He was a pledge and didn't want to have to mop the floors that week, so he figured he'd get two cute girls to the party and earn extra points. I so did not want to go. After an hour of begging and pleading (my roommate wanted to go too so she joined in) I agreed to go, but I stated that I would be leaving early and I refused to socialize with any super dorks (this fraternity had the nerdy reputation on campus) and I was a little bit of a bitch back then.
Fine, ok, and off we went. I had my guard up, determined to not have any fun and within an hour it had all changed. It wasn't a typical frat party, there was music, dancing and booze, but it wasn't rowdy (more happy hour at the neighborhood bar then Animal House), the guys were sweet, intelligent and funny. I was actually enjoying myself and having a good time when I finally saw him. He was sitting up on the bar and had just made a joke. As he jumped off, our eyes met, we smiled at one another, and just like Meg Ryan says in Sleepless In Seattle, "It was magic." I watched him out of the corner of my eye, he approached one of the other guys and a few moments later, both of them made their way over to me and my girlfriend.
I found out much later that he had grabbed his friend and said, "You take the tall one and I'll take the short one with big boobs." LOL, not very romantic, but hey, he was 19 at the time. We talked to no one else at the party for the rest of the evening. The party ended early, but we weren't ready to end the evening. We went out for ice cream, and talked some more. We were in our own little world. No one and nothing else mattered. We probably could have stayed out on that bench by the lake and talked all night, but my roommate was done fooling around with the boyfriend of the moment, and they eventually made their way out of the bushes and said they wanted to go home. As we said our goodbyes he invited me to a pizza party that the frat was having Friday night and afterward he wanted to take me to the movies. I readily agreed. We hadn't kissed, or even held hands, but I just knew this was something special. All I could think about was our upcoming date, I walked around the next day in a fog, and my friends kept telling me to take that creepy grin off my face. I couldn't stop smiling, I couldn't stop thinking about him. Was he as great as I thought he was? What does he think about me? Was there really this amazing chemistry between us or was I crazy? I went to the pizza party, we went to the movies and we've been together ever since. He wasn't my first lover, but I had no idea that he would be my last lover. He wasn't my first best friend, but he would become my closest best friend. I had no idea that night would change my life forever. It's been twenty years, married 13 of those years. We've had our hard times, we've had many wonderful times, but most importantly we've had them together. He's in my blood, he's a part of my soul, he will forever be a part of me. Garrett, I love you.
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