The Story of Us

Today, K & I are celebrating ELEVEN years of marriage.

Eleven years.

Holy cow.

First, I never thought I'd like any boy this long. Ok, sometimes, I don't like him very much, but I love, love, love the man all the time. I never thought that would happen.

Second, I never thought I would find a man who would be able to put up with all of my, um, sparkling qualities for more than a few months at a time. I'm not saying I'm difficult to deal with, but... I might've been told that once or twice... or a couple hundred times.

I've been thinking a lot about our story the past couple of days, and I have to say -- we've never been normal. I've always thought that our relationship would make a great movie, which made me think of the movie, "The Story of Us" starring Michelle Pfieffer and Bruce Willis. Back in the day, when that movie came out, I made K take me to see it in the theater.

He was not really excited.

Normally, he picks the movies, and I tag along. To say our tastes in films is different is like saying Antarctica is chilly.

Anyway, one day, if our kids want to know how we came about but don't want to ask because they're teenagers and don't want to talk to us more than neccessary, I want them to be able to find "The Story of Us: The K & A Version."

Let's start at the beginning: The First Meeting

I was a senior at Clemson, having just moved home to do my student teaching. My friend Bess -- one of my college roommates, teaching partners, and general partner in crime -- had gotten a job at The Home Depot.

Not the most obvious choice for an English major, but whatev.

B wanted to introduce me to this guy, Van. I was always on the lookout for The Perfect Man, but generally, I found The Weirdo, The Suction Cup, or The Uninterested Man... so B decided to help me out.

Around January 1999, I decided to get a job at The Home Depot, too; why, I will never fully understand because at that time, my idea of home improvement involved cleaning my room.

Anyway.

I got a part-time job there in February, and I had to go to this higher level institution called Cashier College to learn how to run a register. One evening, after my educationally enlightening experience at Cashier College, I was supposed to pick B up at work and go back to her house for the evening. The plan was for us to casually bump into Van so she could make the introduction, as he wasn't really excited about the idea of a blind date.

When I got to HD (I'm sure I was over-dressed), we started walking toward the back of the store where Van was working, unaware of the extraordinary opportunity about to befall him. As we were walking toward the plumbing department (or maybe it was millwork -- I can't remember which, but still -- either place just SCREAMS "romance," right?), we saw a cluster of people standing in front of the kitchen cabinet display.

We walk up to the group because B is the friendly sort, and there, leaning against this giant, orange, rolling metal ladder, is The Most Beautiful Man I Have Ever Seen.

*Cue the angels singing and heavenly spotlight.*

I'm pretty sure my mouth dropped open slightly, which is super-hot and shows total nonchalance.

B introduces me to him and the rest of the small group, mentioning that I will be working there when I finish Cashier College; I shake his hand, hoping I'm not drooling or breathing loudly through my partially open mouth.

I managed a smile, I guess, and he said something grown-up, like "Look forward to having you working here."

As we walked away, my head was spinning, and when I finally regained my power of speech, I interrupted Bess, who was chattering on about Van, and said:

"I'm going to marry him."

B: "Who? Van? You haven't met him yet."

A: "No. That guy we just met."

B: "You can't marry him. He has a girlfriend. And he's an assistant manager. And Van is so nice."

A: "I don't care. I'm going to marry him."

B gives me a look, as we are not typically boyfriend-stealers, and we proceed on to meet Van, who was a super-nice guy but appeared to possibly be scared of me.

Now, I had no idea if The Hot Guy had any interest in me at all, but I couldn't get him out of my head. That night, I outlined B's new mission: to find out if The Hot Guy was serious with his girlfriend, to find out his basic story, to pretty much super-secret stalk him so I could figure him out. Reluctantly, she agreed; the rest was up to me... once I finished Cashier College and was bestowed with that beautiful orange apron, of course.

Tune in later for the next installment in "The Story of Us": Stalking My Prey