Sweethearts.

Fourteen years ago, I began to pursue a man boy when I was a junior in high school. He had longish hair, wore Metallica shirts and was a general bad boy. Okay, I made that last part up, but as the only girl in my family, I had to brace my parents for who I was potentially going to bring home.

He attended homecoming with a different girl and I went with friends. I started falling for him over dial-up IM AOL-style (You remember the one – where your dad had to make a phone call and so he kicked you off the internet…) After homecoming, we continued to talk (and dated no one else) and eventually landed at Huck Finn’s diner for a non-date get together. We laughed over ID photos and I picked him up of course. Once I got home, we went back on IM where he proceeded to ask me to come back over. I didn’t (and frankly, couldn’t).

We finally ended up meeting up with friends one night (March 3rd) and kissed (whoops). He insisted that meant we were dating. I, however, was waiting to be formally asked to date and he apparently didn’t think the formality was necessary. On March 6th, we went on our first real date and watched (yeah, right) The Next Best Thing. It is the only time I have ever sat in the back row of a movie theater. And with Madonna as the lead role, you can probably understand why it was on the bottom of our priority list to actually be concerned with the substance. He finally asked me to be his girlfriend and the rest is history. Thirteen years after our first official date (and after he officially asked me to be his girlfriend), we are as in love as ever {gag}.

To conclude, I’d like to include some short excerpts from his letter to me at the end of our high school yearbook – junior year:

“Through years of strife and struggle, two youths find their way through mountains of people to find each other. Awww… how cute. I wonder who those people could be. Wait, they’re us.”

“I’ll sign my last name just in case you forget it later on in life. I know, it’s almost impossible to forget me.”

“Why won’t you let me erase my hair in my picture? You’re going to show that picture to our kids and they’re going to laugh…little brats.” {Charlie didn’t even recognize him!}

I saw this shirt for Walmart and I promise it’s just for laughs.

Life is so much more awesome being with him, even after 13 years.