"I Do"

I remember the first moment I saw my wife.  It was one of the first days of class at Bemidji State University, my 3rd year, and I was walking along the sidewalk from Oak Hall towards Hagg-Sauer Hall.  From around the corner of Walnut Hall, where the cafeteria and campus security were located, this short girl with dark bob-style hair came out--oh, what a smile she had!

Not sure if she said hi to me or not.  She probably did, and the chicken that I was, I thought this girl just had to have a boyfriend.  In November, just after the Thanksgiving break, I saw her working as a dispatcher for the campus security.  My friend Mike and I saw her, and he said, "I'm going to see if she wants to go to a movie."

Heartbroken, I went up to the cafeteria, knowing that this dark-haired beauty would be on a date with my friend that weekend.

But when Mike came up a few minutes later, he said, "She shot me down."

Turns out, she didn't.  She told me (months later) that he didn't even ask her out.  She wasn't even sure what he asked her.

After supper that November day, I went down to see if I had the nerve to talk to her.  I saw another friend of mine from Tae Kwon Do was also working, so I went in to see if I could strike a conversation up with her.

We talked for probably thirty to forty minutes.  She grew up about 90 minutes from where I did, and she talked about a lot of the same people I knew and went to high school with.  This moment didn't spark an immediate date request from me (that didn't happen for months and months later, because, like I said, I was a chicken), but we slowly became friends.

The reason I bring this up today is because, fifteen years ago today, we got married.  And what better way to celebrate than to . . . write a blog about it!

Happy Anniversary Melissa!