The way we met...

It just occurred to me that today is March 15th. I know the date has some rather ominous literary meaning - Ides of March and all, but it's also the anniversary of a very important night in my life.

Yep, 12 years ago tonight was the first night I met my wonderful wife. I was a JO (junior officer) on a boat out of Groton, living in Mystic. My friend V who sat behind me in nuclear power school in Orlando was friends with LW from college. LW introduced him to her roommate C up in Boston, and C & V hit it off.

So C&V were going to be passing through Groton that Saturday night in March 1997. Saturday afternoon they called LW up and told her to pack an overnight bag and drive her butt on down to Mystic to hang out with them and meet me. They told her they were also staying the night at my house.

Against her better judgement, LW decided to be impulsive, packed a bag, and drove down to Mystic. So the first time I laid eyes on her was when my doorbell rang and I opened up the front door of my house to find her standing on my front step.

We walked to Margaritas for dinner about five or so blocks down the street. V and I sat there talking about boat stuff and using all these weird acronyms like EOOW and EDO all through dinner. Between that and the SUPER-stylin' outfit I was wearing that night, it's a wonder my wife ever agreed to see me again.

After dinner, we walked back to my house, where C & V promptly got in their car and said, "okay-nice-to-see-ya-take-care-bu-bye." Insert the tires screecing sound effect here as they sped off and left LW standing on my front doorstep late on a Saturday night with some nerd she only met a couple of hours before hand.

It was a big house in the Historic District of Mystic. Seven bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms. I had two bedrooms and a full bathroom on the second floor. My roommate Sean had two bedrooms and a full bathroom on the second floor. Our roommate Jay had 3 bedrooms and a full bathroom on the third floor. On the first floor we shared the living room (with all Sean's living room furniture and surround sound home theater stuff), dining room, kitchen, breakfast nook, laundry room, half bath, and family room (with all my living room furniture and surround sound home theater stuff).

Aside: This was actually a pretty good set up since Sean was a Notre Dame grad. You could count on there being some form of Notre Dame sporting event showing in the living room anytime Sean was home. That left us my TV and stuff in the family room to watch anything NOT related to Notre Dame.

So I told LW that I had an extra room and she was welcome to stay. If she stayed, then she was welcome to go to church with me in the morning and I could take her for a tour of a submarine if she had any interest in that.

Again, against her better judgement, she stayed.

The next morning I was walking down the hall as she came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her head after taking a shower. Some might consider such a sight odd for someone you only met the night before, but somehow it just felt right to me. It was as if it wasn't the first time, nor would it be the last - just like it was totally natural and meant to be.

Anyway, we went to church and I took her for a tour of the boat and she headed back to Boston.

For our second "date" (if you could call it that), the very next weekend I got to attend a sort of a family reunion for her dad up in Boston and met her ENTIRE extended family. They all seemed to like me and gave her permission to keep me around. The rest, as they say, is history.

From then on, we spent every weekend together that I was in port. If I didn't have duty, then I would go to Boston for the weekend. If I had duty, then she would come down to Mystic for the weekend.

That was back in the days before terrorists caused us to reevaluate our security practices. She used to drive up to the gate at the sub base, show a bag of food to the gate guard and say, "My boyfriend is the duty officer on the [Use-ta-fish]," and the gate guard would say, "Okay, Ma'am, enjoy your dinner and have a nice evening." She would drive right on down and park right on the quay wall right smack next to the boat and walk on across the brow.

Anyway...

I just thought I would take a moment to remember being in Mystic 12 years ago tonight.

Thank you, Sweetie, for being impulsive and coming to Mystic that night, and for agreeing to see me again in spite of what a nerd I was (am still). :-)