So my SO, Hyperboeran Wanderer wrote a really wonderful article as a birthday present to me. One of the things I love is to hear him tell me stories about our life. Mostly because I have sucha bad memory but also because I like how everything is so much more vivid when told in his words. We have a lot of really great memories together, but there is one that I have to write. It's about the day I fell in love with him.
Segue****He told a story about how I happen to have left hook from Cleavland but he forgot to mention that I was wearing an engagement ring from another guy at he time. That left hook left more than a black eye....I (unintentionally) cut him right along his eye too! (This isn't really important to the story, but I jsut wanted to throw it in.) I felt really bad about it at the time,but I'm kind of proud of that left hook.
Anyway, a few weeks later, my friend and I wanted to go to Great America. The only problem was that in California you have to be 25 to rent a car and we were only 18 at the time. HW was the only guy I knew that fit all three requirements.
1) old enough to rent a car...he was 26 at the time
2) single
3) nice enough that we would want to hang out with him all day
We invited 2 other guys that we knew and the five of us piled into the car for the drive. The trip itself was uneventful but as the day progressed, I found myself watching HW more and more. He looked like a really angry, grumpy guy, but he wasn't like that to us .He was fun to be with and funny. He was a genuenly nice guy. I liked being with him. He was generous and kind,serious but he had a fun side too.
Even though I was engaged to another guy, I was finding myself feeling all gushy around him. It took several hours, but I realized that I was doing the "high school crush" thing. I had never "been in love" in high school, I'd never really had "puppy love" and here I was being hit full fledged with the realization that I wanted this guy in my life for more than just a few hours. I kept mentally comparing my fiance and HW and in every comparison, HW won hands down. I realized that I could not get married, knowing that I hadn't taken the chance with this guy. I decided then and there to break it off and pursue HW. (more on that later)
I know this may sound heartless, but at the time I was in a relationship with a guy who didn't treat me very well and had a less than savory past...although I didn't know how unsavory until later. So please don't think I was a horrible person for ditching one guy for another, but I digress.
I remember the moment that I realized that I had fallen in love with him. We were standing in line for TopGun (one of the roller coasters at 6 Flags) He was laughing and joking around with my friend Karen and all I could think of was a way to make sure he was in the middle so I could sit next to him on the ride. I caught myself thinking this and realized that I would give up everything I had to be with him. A little while later, the two of us were running in circles, riding a ride over and over during the last few minutes before closing and I realized I was happy.
That was probably the first time in my life that I had ever been unconditionally happy and perfectly at ease with someone.
The whole ride home, I kept thinking of how I woudl get out of the car and then very casually turn around and ask him if he wanted company when he returned the rental car.....only he beat me to the punch! That was April 11th 1997. He asked me to marry him 6 weeks later and we were married on July 5th that year.
And now I think of my life in two parts, the part where I was sad, self concious and just podding my way through life and the part since HW has been in my life. Everything has changed for the better. Even with deployments, separations and other trials, I am still happpier today, because of him in my life, than I ever was before.
Thank you for everything, Hyperboeran Wanderer. I love you!