8 Years Ago Tomorrow!

Tomorrow marks Rob and my 8 year anniversary, not of when we first met or of our marriage but of our very first date. I've always liked this anniversary immensely, snuggled as it is so close to Valentine's day, and so completely distant from all other holidays and birthdays. It's also immediately adjacent to quite a few friends' and family members' birthdays, which makes this time of year seem a little more special to me.

But most of all, I have just always been absolutely awestruck at the kind of fate that stepped in and decided that against all odds, Rob and I should actually date, marry and love each other forever.

We met about four or five months earlier -- that date has always somewhat eluded us, despite it's magnificent impact. I was hosting a training session for our Resident Hall Assoc. in the meeting room next to the Rue de la Course where he worked. And since I wasn't incredibly prepared, I had to keep boring things from Rue. Rob very clearly remembers me doing so, and though I remember seeing him, I don't remember it nearly as much. Because the Rue people had been so nice and generous, I invited them to our Semolina's buffet (mmmmm, Semolina's) and as I was heading through the line chatting with my friend David, I heard the most wonderful voice ever inserting a smart-ass comment into our conversation.

Not only was it love at first sound, but I remember very certainly thinking, "Some day we'll tell our grandkids this story."

And then 4 months went by. Four months of us flirting and me coyly hanging out at Rue, developing a serious (but not expensive!) coffee habit just so I could see him. Random conversations, joking around, staring at each other across a noisy room. And no actual progress.

The day before I left for Christmas break I had taken 3 history finals in one day, filling 7 blue books (God, remember those?!?) in mindnumbing essays and I had just about decided to give up. I was too tired to go to Rue, and I was feeling like nothing would ever happen, it was clear Rob wasnt going to ask me out. Since I had always been the asker-out-er, I didn't want to do that again. I was refusing this time. So I was not going to go to Rue. End of story.

And then David called me, and said "Alex, get down here right now." When I said no, that I was staying in, he said, "I just asked Rob why he's not asked you out yet, and he said he's waiting for you to ask him."

So I did go down there, and I did flirt away. But I didn't ask him out. I was going away for 3 weeks, what was a girl supposed to do? When I left that night, I told him, "I've got big plans for you, Mister," and then I walked out (leaving my wallet behind and having to go back, but still it was a good moment.)

But when I came back to New Orleans in January, he was no where to be found. For 3 weeks. I checked all the Rues, no sign. And then one day in early February, there he was again. It turns out his Mom had passed away. Here I was all worried about whether he would ask me out, and it suddenly all seemed so unimportant. That night, we stood out on the patio of Rue while his coworkers covered for him, and mutually asked each other out.

I, as a typical Martha Stewart type, invited him over to our flat and cooked him dinner (steak and potatoes, see I had marriage in mind!) And we watched some Casablanca-esque movie. And he asked me to be his Valentine. And that was the beginning of the best thing that has ever happened to me.