Memories

We will celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary this Friday. 11 years! If I had gotten pregnant on our honeymoon, I'd have a 6th grader today. Crazy. We've actually been dating for the greater part of 18 years. Wanna hear how Matt and I first got together? (I promise not to break out the wedding album...)

It was March of 1989- the time of REM, Esprit bags and wine coolers. It was a typical Saturday Night for the Redlands High Speech team- we were holed up in Troy Kobold's "bonus room" (unventilated storage room off his garage that his parents encouraged him to bring friends to instead of letting them in the house), drinking Seagreams coolers and playing Truth or Dare. Matt and I had been really good friends for a while- we talked on the phone a lot, but that was it. He got a "dare"- and someone dared him to kiss me. So he did. A nice, sloppy wine coolerish kiss. Then Troy drove everyone home in his Mom's minivan and Matt held my hand and said he would call me.

He did call- the very next day. We decided to try dating, and see how that went- so we made plans to go out that Saturday night. On April 2, 1989- Matt picked me up in his Mom's station wagon. He was a bit late, because he witnessed a little kid getting hit by a car, and had to wait to give a statement to the police.

He took me out for Japanese food- which I had never tried. As I watched him slurp up his sushi, I kept thinking to myself "Holy shit. If he thinks I can kiss him after he puts that raw tuna in his mouth- he's insane." When we got the bill, he grimaced at the amount- and I nervously asked him if he needed any money. "No," he giggled. It was his idea of a joke. (He has since grimaced at every food bill since).

After that, he took me to see the movie Say Anything. This is a GREAT date movie, and we actually danced to Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" at our wedding. (Ironically, I actually did give Matt a pen for Christmas this year). Despite the romance, I just couldn't understand why I wasn't nervous on this date. I hadn't had many first dates, but the few I had, I always felt uncomfortable, and this one, well, when Matt drove me home, I told him that it had been such a fun evening, and that I was so comfortable around him- because I thought of him like a brother. SCREECH! Date ends.

It took me a couple of more months to realize this was a mistake, and he spent the entire night of his graduation ignoring me. All of our friends went on a dance cruise in Long Beach right after graduation, and on the way home, at 4am, on a gassy school bus, with everyone else around us asleep- Matt grabbed my hand. Eighteen years later, I haven't let go.