Meeting My Man...

This week I am participating in a "Valentine's Day Extravaganza" over at My Little Life... What is a "Valentine's Day Extravaganza" you ask?... good question. She has posted a week worth of topics to blog about and so I will use these to inspire my posts this week. Today's topic is: The story of how you met the love of your life...or, if you haven't yet met the love of your life tell me how you met your best friend!

So here goes...

The year was 1990 (hence the clothing and hair styles...) and I was 17 years old, fresh off a break -up, and out with three friends of mine. The four of us rarely had the same night off on a weekend and we decided to go shoot pool. Easier said then done, you see there is a major military base here and every place with a pool table was filled with young GI's... not a bad thing when you are looking to meet a guy, but when you just want to spend some time with your girl friends... this can be a problem. We started at an arcade, but all the pool tables were full, and we had to "win" one. Not really an option for us, so we moved on to a pool hall...20 tables all full... next stop the bowling ally... same problem. We were about ti give up when my friend Lisa remembered that this seedy little bar where nothing but old timers hung out had a couple pool tables in the back. Her mom owned a local "pub" and so she know a lot of the local bar owners, and went in to check if it would be ok if we played there... he didn't mind, and lo and behold there was an empty pool table...We got a pitcher of coke and started, finally having a really good time... There were a couple guys playing on the next table, but we were in our own little world...

Rebecca circa 1990

About thirty minutes later I went over the the jukebox and was about to drop in my quarters when I was beat to the coin slot by one of the soldiers playing on the next table... I gave him a dirty look, but he smiled and said the next song was on him... I was about to blast him, when I spotted it... the perfect song... I'm sure it was written just for this moment... The A**hole Song... Horrible song... but I thought it would send the message loud and clear. (Two things I wish I knew then... 1. This guy lives for a challenge & 2. We would later marry and this song would become our "unofficial" song....)

He persisted, bought us pitchers of cokes, flirted, ordered a pizza.... all the while I refused to acknowledge his existence. At one point he was chatting with one of my friends and I misunderstood something he said and asked him to repeat it...he said (and I quote) "If you weren't so rude you'd have heard me the first time." What??? I looked at him square in the eye and said "If you weren't so pushy, I would be nicer." To which he started laughing... and I couldn't help myself.. I did too. We talked some after that, but soon it was time for us to leave. He asked for my number... (not gonna happen) but I did say I'd take his and give him a call sometime. (yeah right... he was 24 and I was 17... he was so old!)

P circa 1990

The next day my friend Tonya and I were hanging out on my parent's front porch and wanting to go out to get something to eat for lunch... but we had about $4.80 between us.. She said "What about that guy from last night... he did offer to take you out." After some debate I gave in and called him... at work.. and told him he could take my friend and I out to lunch... (I know..I was so impetuous...so sassy...where did that girl go?)

Turns out he found me "charming" and agreed to lunch and even brought along a friend for Tonya. We met the at a local steak house, (he chose...I wasn't that sassy...) and bought us all lunch! It turned out he was smart, witty and had ambitious goals. He had been in the army less then five years and was an E-5 which showed some motivation... And kinda good looking too... on second glance... The age thing even seemed moot...after all I'd be 18 in about a month and he just turned 24... no so big of a difference... right...so when he asked me out for dinner that night, I said yes... how could I not?

Us in a mall photo booth on our 4th date... Sept. 1990

PS. Sorry about the picture quality.. our scanner is apparently on strike, so I had to take pictures of pictures.. some of them with my daughter's cell phone when my batteries died... who knew electronics take the Sabbath off?

Also: The "Name my Family" contest & giveaway is still going on.. so head on over HERE... and enter now.
Thanks for listening,