I think I knew from our first date that my wife was going to be the one I was going to marry. Granted I literally broke up with my ex the day before I asked her out, but it all worked out. Though I was twenty-one and she was eighteen it was the first real date either of us had been on. We had started “going out” with people before, but it was always meeting and doing things in social situations then you were labeled as a couple, and doing things was just being together and not really a date. I did ask one girl out on a date previously, but it turned into a double date, so this was my first real date.

It was in September of 1997 and I managed to get off work early and get a haircut, then I went out to one of our customers and bought her a bouquet of roses. We went to Chi-Chi’s in Lorain, Ohio driving there in my 1986 Ford Escort. I ordered a Mexican pizza which they burned and she had me send it back, and I believe she ordered the chimichangas. We talked about going to the movies afterward and decided on Conspiracy Theory. Walking to the car I asked her if I was the type of guy she could fall in love with (me=geek, not the best social skills). She said maybe. I asked her if I was the type of guy she could see herself marrying, and she said she didn’t know. We then drove over to the movie and had a wonderful time.

A few days later she was having problems with her parents, she was at a crossroads and all upset. She was sitting on the front stoop of her friend’s house and that was the first time I ever told her I loved her. She cried in my arms (not from me saying that, but because of the other stress) and said it back to me. Three months later we were engaged. Thirteen months later on Jan 2, 1999, we got married. From that first date until about 2004 when she went back to Ohio to visit family while I was stuck working in Oregon, we never spent more than 24 hours away from one another, over 2600 days of seeing each other at least once every day.

I’m not going to say everything has always been fantastic, we’ve had our ups and downs. We have managed to stay together and stay in love. I love her more each day, and now she is going to be the mother of my child (last year we did say we would do something special for our 10th). We are opposites, but we are also twins, we are stronger together than we are apart. We are both critical thinkers, yet I’m the only one that thinks she is the better of the two of us – so sometimes she is wrong.

She is the core of my being and the center of my universe, even though I don’t always show it. Her thoughts and dreams revolve around mine like mine do around her. She is my wife, and I love her.