Eight Years Ago Today

I met Hubby eight years ago today.  I think that's pretty freaking cool.  We are the happiest married couple I know, and for that, I am proud. 

Eight years ago, I was working somewhere we will call Big Glass Building and I was an administrative assistant.    I worked out of one office three days a week and out of their other one, 25 miles away, on the other two days a week.    

I had been hearing about this hot new guy, but it was almost comical how I would not quite be able to see him.  He'd be walking into a conference room and I would see the arm of his jacket or something.  It was kind of funny.  Anyway, he worked on the floor above me at the time.  So he'd been there for almost three months and I'd never met him. 

On the first Monday of every month, we had a meeting with everyone in the company.  However, Mondays were usually the days that I was at the other location, so I didn't usually go.  But that day, they were doing a spotlight on me (I know... that seems kind of funny now.  I dont know any other companies that do that... but maybe they do).  Anyway, so I came to the meeting and they did the spotlight at the beginning.  

Well right as they finish, I happened to look behind me at someone shuffling in.  

ENTER NEW GUY.

Wow, I think.  He is totally sexy!  Mmmnn and those green eyes!  I turn around quickly but am very aware that he was right behind me the whole meeting.  

When the meeting was over, I ran into Receptionist on the way back upstairs.  Receptionist's boyfriend had been really mean to her and they were in a fight and she was a mess.  She asks me if I can watch the phones for a minute while she goes to the ladies room to compose herself.

Of course I said I will, so I was at the front desk manning the phones.  So I'm answering and some guy from our office called the front desk to help him figure out what time it would be in Hawaii right then.. blah blah.... 

So Im trying to remember what the time difference would be when... in walks New Guy.

I look up and muffle the phone receiver and ask him if he happens to know what the time difference would be in Hawaii.  He answers immediately, because sexy New Guy knows everything I could ever want the answer to.  He goes around the corner and is gone for a few minutes. 

Then he comes back and leans his arms on the receptionist counter.  

"Hey.  I'm NEW GUY."

I lean a little closer to him and look up at him through my lashes.

"I know who you are."

At this, he smiles and can't keep my gaze.  He says, "Oh really?  And how do you know who I am?"

I give a little shrug. "You know, the ladies here... they talk."

"Oh really?"  He is captivating and I can't catch my breathe.  It's like time has stopped.

Then of course, someone walks in and I have to handle something.  Someone needs a form or something.  We break our conversation, as if we can't let anyone else know.  He gives me a smile and a head nod and retreats back around the corner.

I'm dizzy.  He is having a crazy affect on me.  Finally Receptionist comes back and I go to my office.

I had a workspace in the same office as my boss.  On this particular day,  Boss tells me that he has someone coming in to talk with him and he had forgotten to tell me to book the conference room.  It's an important meeting.  Unfortunately, all the conference rooms are booked, so he tells me that I am going to have to be scarce for an hour or two.  

This has never happened before, so I decide to go down to the break room.  I'm walking down the hall when I pass the office three doors down from mine.  As I'm passing it, I hear a "hey."  It's that voice.  Deep and sexy.  

I turn, and there is new guy.  Setting up his new office.  Three doors down from me.  

He starts making small talk with me and my stomach is doing those flip flops like I'm 14 again.  He invites me into his office, where we proceed to talk.  For an hour and a half straight.  

Feels like its five minutes.  I have never met anyone like him before.  He is nine years older than me.  He has three kids.  He had just come over from another company.  He lives and hour and a half from where I live.  He asks me all sorts of things and when I talk, he listens.  Like I'm the only one left in the world.  He smiles and is a little flirty with me, but not too much.  Just a hint... which intrigues me.  

I don't find out for many months that after I left his office, he called his best friend and told him that he had met the most amazing girl that he was in love with her.  True story.

The next morning, I had made peach cobbler and brought it in to the office.  Fall is my FAVORITE time of year, and there is nothing yummier than peach cobbler with peaches right off the tree. 

I send out an email to the company letting them know that there is cobbler in the break room for all to enjoy.

Minutes later, I get an email from New Guy. 

"Hey Peachy,

I am out of town, but I wish I could try out some of your cobbler.  If you want to email, here is my personal email address NewGuy@hotmail.com

New Guy"

And that's how it starts.  We begin emailing.  All the time.  He starts showing up at a business class Im taking for work, with ice cream, trying to get me to ditch early.  He made me homemade guacamole.  He takes me up the canyons to see the beautiful fall leaves.  I don't know why I trust him, but I do.  We talk like we have to tell each other everything about our entire lives.  In fact, we want to know more about each other so much that we start writing "Random Thoughts" ... just a 'stream-of-consciousness' writing about anything that has happened to us in the past.  

Things like "This guy in third grade had a crush on me and when another guy liked me too, he punched him out on the playground.  I have only ever had salmon out of a can so I don't think I like fish.  I love to sing and routinely perform.  I got the scar on my chin when I was six- we were playing tag in the kitchen that had wood floors.  I was wearing socks and a chair was base... I slid right into the chair, splitting my chin open.  I hate the dark.  I love listening to the crickets outside at night...."

Our company is full of rumors, so we decide to keep it quiet.  The second floor is under construction so we meet there for five minute 'rendezvous.'  He shows up at the other building I work at with bagels and orange juice for breakfast.  

He is intoxicating.  I can't get him out of my head and the days blur together- a string of moments when I am with him.  

He shows me a song.  It's by Ben Folds, called "The Luckiest."  It describes us perfectly and I can't believe I've found this man.

The words are:

I don't get many things right the first time
In fact, I am told that a lot
Now I know all the wrong turns, the stumbles and falls
Brought me here

And where was I before the day
That I first saw your lovely face?
Now I see it everyday
And I know

That I am
I am
I am
The luckiest

What if I'd been born fifty years before you
In a house on a street where you lived?
Maybe I'd be outside as you passed on your bike
Would I know?

And in a wide sea of eyes
I see one pair that I recognize
And I know

That I am
I a
I am
The luckiest

I love you more than I have ever found a way to say to you

Next door there's an old man who lived to his nineties
And one day passed away in his sleep
And his wife; she stayed for a couple of days
And passed away

I'm sorry, I know that's a strange way to tell you that I know we belong
That I know

That I am
I am
I am
The luckiest

We will end up dancing to this song at our wedding.  

My favorite line is "In a wide sea of eyes, there is one pair that I recognize."  That completely sums up how I feel every time I see him.

After only three weeks, we are at Einstein's getting ready to leave.  We are in our separate cars, facing different directions, windows down.

The air is crisp now and the leaves are all turning.  Its scarf weather and I have the heat on a little.   We really need to go but neither of us wants to leave.  

"I think I'm in love with you," he says and I can tell he means it.  I'm scared, but I say it back, a huge grin threatening to break my face in half.   

We date nonstop, every second we can be together.  I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, for me to figure out something that ruins this whirlwind, and brings me back down to earth.

But it never comes.  We date for two years.  Then he proposes to me on Laguna beach at sunset on Valentines Day.  

I love everything about this man.  I truly do.  It not just something I say, when I say we are the happiest married couple I know.  We really are.  

I know that I am the luckiest.  

Happy eight years baby.  Love you always and forever.