On March 17, 1997 I had a day from hell. Anything that could go wrong at work, went wrong. There was drama that I thought only Jr High girls could pull off. It was cold and had been raining all day. I longed to go home, pull on my comfy flannels, curl up with my Springer Spaniel (Shanti) on the couch, and read a good book.

I made it in the front door when my phone rang. It was J. We had been dating almost a month. Nothing serious as I was seeing other guys too, but I was starting really like this one.

He needed to talk to me and it had to happen right then. “Go with me to Sonic and we’ll grab a drink and talk.”

I groaned. But he was cute.

Flannels or cute guy….

He picked me up 10 minutes later. 😉

I don’t remember anything we talked about on the way there. I just know when we got our drinks he started grinning funny. Uh-oh…

J talks your ears and eyes off. He also has a tendency of previewing what he wants to really say. I come from a family of bottom-liners, so I was having trouble focusing on what his point might be. Then it got worse.

Apparently he had meatball subs for dinner. And he was burping them. Dear Lord above! It was rank! It was also still raining hard so I couldn’t put my window down to “enjoy the fresh air.” Oy…

However, in between the burps and rabbit trails, I was starting to understand the whole point of our talk. He wanted to date me exclusively.

Earlier in the week I guess I mentioned I had gone to dinner with a broker which was out of character for me because I never dated anyone connected to my job. To me that was no biggie, but to J, who was looking for a wife, this made him realize he needed to get down on it! J believed in courting which was new to me ->I had to look it up. In all honesty I didn’t like that style of dating, but if that was his style, I would give it a go.

I guess the courting thing worked because we married the next year.

It’s been 18 years since that stinky night and we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day as our “Valentine’s day” every year.

Happy Us Day, babe…