November 16, 1991

Thirteen years ago today… is when my life was finally set on its permanent course that I would no longer roam the Earth alone. I would no longer feel that it was me against the world. I would no longer see me as a single entity, but I would see me as a half of a partnership. Thirteen years ago, I married my husband.

We met 17 years ago in at a bar, believe it or not, funnier still because neither of us drink. I worked at the same company as his brother and his brother’s department was having a Happy Hour at a local bar. A girlfriend of mine worked in the same department as my now brother in law, and invited me to go with her. The minute I met my husband, I knew he was the one.

Amazingly good looking, dark brown hair, dark brown eyes, the most amazing lips… bedroom eyes… he looks like Andy Garcia with a hint of George Clooney. When I first met him he looked to me like the young Al Pacino from the Godfather I. He is 5’6” with shoes, broad shoulders, long fingers and strong hands, 30” waist… when he works out he has the toned body that is cut… the type of body men dream of having with the small waist and broad shoulders. When he doesn’t work out, you can’t tell. He always looks like he stepped out of some fashion magazine. Model perfect. Old women flirt with him shamelessly and if the young women don’t proposition him still, it is only because he can be incredibly cold and aloof…distancing himself from women he feels are dangerous. He is married and he is married to me.

When I met him at the bar, I walked up and sat across from him. I only talked to him although there was much joking and laughter around me. I was dating someone at the time; someone I had been seeing for 2 years and we were talking marriage. Something just never quite felt 100% with the other guy, even though I was madly in love with him. But… when I met my husband, even though I didn’t really know him, I could tell he was a good man, he was smart and respectful and I could tell… that.he.was.the.one. and that everything was right and nothing was wrong.

I called my Mom that night and said, “I met the man whose children I’m going to bear” and she said, “But you’re practically engaged to Kevin” and I replied, “I know. I made a mistake. This is the one.”

Of course my eventual husband didn’t know that. I tried to get him to go out with me, but he was seeing someone. But over the course of the year, I would be somewhere and he would too, by pure coincidence. It was weird. So I would hang out with him and his brother and slowly he got to know me. There were times where I think you could say I kind of chased him down like a dog. Then one day in March, 16 years ago, he asked me out. After the first week of dating, we were inseparable, never living together, but having dinner together every night and spending every waking moment together on weekends. We never broke up, it just felt right immediately. We were married 2 1/2 years later.

And it’s been 13 years. I’ve forgotten our anniversary once. I’ve scheduled our dinner on the WRONG day. Last year on our anniversary someone asked me how many years we were married and I got the wrong number. Actually, it went something like this:

Person: “So, how many years have you been married?”
Me: “13 years.”
Husband: “13? I thought it was only 12.”
Me: “No. 13.”
Husband: “We got married in ’91. It is now 2003. My math says 12 years.”
Me: “Oh. You’re right.”
Me looking at person who asked the original question: “12 years. We’ve been married 12 years.”

So this year I got it right. 13 years. He is my soul mate. There are days we surely look at each other and think, “What was I thinking?!!!” There have been days where barely a civil word can be said. But there are days I call him at work just because I need to hear HIS voice. There are days when I cannot wait for him to come through that door… that I can’t wait to see him, hear him, smell him. More days than not, I cannot keep my hands off of him and when he travels, I have to sleep with his pillow near me so I can still smell him when I sleep.

If something were to happen to him… I would be forever lost for he is my compass. He is what keeps me grounded. He is what makes me realize I am not alone. He makes me complete.

Happy Anniversary, Love.