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Back in the Day

Tim and I were sitting on the couch, watching bad TV and chatting about a lot of nothing this weekend when it suddenly struck me that as of this summer, Tim and I will have known each other for 15 years. Last year, we celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary, and that was big. But 15 years is a LONG time. We met in the '90s. Remember when the Olympics were held in Atlanta? When the Packers won the Super Bowl the LAST time around? When Princess Di divorced Prince Charles? When Boris Yeltsin was leader of Russia? Bill Clinton was elected to a second term?

All those things happened in 1996.

I can barely remember what I had for breakfast yesterday. So I'm not that surprised I had to Google 1996 to come up with some major events to relay. However, my hubby surprised me...really floored me...when he told me he remembers what I was wearing the first moment he laid eyes on me when we met that day for a meal at Applebee's in St. Joseph, MO. He was specific: those shorts that looked like a little skirt. He thinks they were blue plaid. He also insists that we went to dinner, not lunch, and that I picked him up at his apartment rather than meeting him at the restaurant. All details I failed to remember.

I. Love. This. Guy. So. Much. !!!

It wasn't the day we officially started dating. This first meeting was simply a friendly meal -- dinner, yes, dinner -- between two people who found out they had a mutual friend and needed something to do on a night off work in a town that I've often described as "the armpit of the Midwest" and that others told me was "an all-you-can-eat kind of town." It took us a couple more months to realize the attraction. Not even my dried-out pork chops and box-mix brownies scared him away that time.

We've been through a lot since we met. We've lived in, between the two of us, at least 6 different zip codes. Tim earned a master's degree. He won a photographer of the year award. We've been pet parents and real-time parents. We became homeowners. Twice. I rode in an airplane for the first time (and several more times going to visit my long-distance love). I moved away from Kansas for the first time. Tim went camping in 20-below weather. He also hiked the Appalachian Trail and canoed the Boundary Waters. Together we've been to the Grand Canyon, Alcatraz, Mt. Rushmore, up the Sears Tower and Hancock Building, to Dallas's grassy knoll, the Four Corners, KC's Plaza, Grand Teton, Yellowstone National Park, and the beaches of Southern California. Tim tried to teach me to ski; we survived that. I spent time in the hospital and was diagnosed with mental illness; survived that, too.

Fifteen years. It's a long time. It feels like longer. In a good way. I can't think of anywhere I'd rather be than with him. Good times. Bad times. Anytime.

"I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible." -- Harry in When Harry Met Sally

Comments

Anonymous said…
Sweet! And it's not quite Valentine's Day yet!
mom
Tim said…
Just to be clear, I hiked on the Appalachian Trail. I didn't hike the whole thing. I should add that to my list though.
Amy said…
Wow, I said all that. And that's all YOU can say?! Sheesh.

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