love

A few days ago we passed a little milestone. It was the anniversary of our first date.

Now to some, it might seem excessive to remember such a thing, but way back when we first met, it certainly felt like a good thing to celebrate.

A lot has happened. Hopefully, a lot more will happen.

It’s been an awesome 26 years. I love you. Happy 18th!

Thanks to a suggestion from Sammanthia, I thought I would check out Sprite’s Keeper. Jennifer posts a new topic every week and asks her readers to write about it.

OK, I’m going to give this one a shot. Not sure quite where it will lead. The topic this week is simply: “What if?”

If you’ve been around my blog a little while, you may know that I’m a bit of a movie nut. And I lean toward sci fi and action movies. Still, there is one movie that is pretty much the penultimate “What If” movie, and that would be “It’s a Wonderful Life.” (and no, I don’t really know what ‘penultimate’ means, it just kinda jumped out there)

What if I had never been born? How would the people I know be affected?

Now, I’m not nearly deep enough to write about not being born, but this is pretty close:

1982. New Year’s Eve party at Amy’s house. Senior in high school. And I met a girl.

I didn’t realize it at that moment, but I should have known – she would change my life. It was at least as important as being born.

We were set up on a date a few months later, then went to Senior Prom, and by the following Christmas we were engaged. A few years later we were married, and, well, the rest is history.

What if we had never met? What if she had fallen for somebody else? That is a scary question, for me. I’m sure things would have worked out well for her, but I don’t think I would have fared well at all. The bad thing is that on a daily basis, I take it for granted that this happened at all; I take it for granted that we’re together still, when almost daily I find that other folks I knew (and some from the same party) have married and divorced, or had serious health issues. We are a couple of the lucky ones.

Now what if I don’t get my act together now?

Okay, quick:

What were you doing 25 years ago today?

Hmm?

Some of you (maybe a couple) were pretty young. If you’re my age you were finishing high school, give or take a year.

Wanna know what I was doing?

25 years ago today, I was stressing out, because I had a date. A blind date. With the woman who, just this morning, said “Holy crap, it’s been 25 years!”

Early on, when I was still a hippie freak, it was a pretty big deal to make it a month. So we got in the habit of celebrating “the 18th.” As the weeks and months turned into years (we were engaged long before the first April 18th came around, btw) we kept celebrating, because the 18th, again to steal my wife’s words, is when it all started.

It’s been awesome. I won’t lie, it’s also been a little scary at times, and I’m certain she has questioned her sanity on ever saying ‘yes’ to me more than a few times. But I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

I love you, honey.