I recently asked on Facebook for people to ask me a question, any question at all, and I would blog the answer. I received a lot of questions about blogging and work, so I will be breaking those down in to separate posts. This one is going to focus on relationships – specifically, how Ian and I met.
The picture above was taken at Ian’s high school graduation in 2004. Yes, he graduated in ’04 and I graduated in ’05. It does not seem like 7 and 8 years ago, but rather much longer! So much has happened since then… but back to the story.
By the time that picture was taken, we’d already been dating for just over a year. We met the summer before, in July 2003. If I could find the movie ticket stub, I could tell you the exact day, but I’m not sure we still have those.
Anyway.
My best friend J was dating HIS best friend K and were planning on going to the mall and seeing a movie. I knew that if I tagged along, Ian would be there. The funny part? Ian had no idea that if he tagged along I would be there. My friend, J, had shown me his picture in the previous year’s yearbook, and was most definitely trying to set me up, it was pretty obvious. I was very much on the fence – I wanted to go, but I didn’t want to. What if he didn’t like me? What if he ignored me? What if he wasn’t as cute as he was in the picture?
Hey, I was a teenager, that last part was VITAL at the time.
I gave in and tagged along. Since K lived in the same neighborhood as J, we walked over to his house. It’s funny how, so many years later, I remember these little details. Once we got to K’s house, his mom took us to Ian’s house where we picked him up.
Even now, I remember it. He was wearing khaki cargo-type shorts, blinding white sneakers, a white tee with a blue/white checkered button-up, and a black baseball cap with Ozzy on it, for Ozzy Osbourne. It’s laughable now that I remember him but not a single thing about myself.
I’m pretty sure we said hi to each other, but that would be the extent of our communication that entire day. Not only did we not talk to each other, but during the movie we sat on opposite ends, furthest from each other. I remember thinking that he must have thought I was ugly or lame or something. There had to be a reason he didn’t talk to me. I shrugged it off, whatever. I told myself I didn’t need a boyfriend, or even want one, and that was it.
Back then, AIM (AOL Instant Messanger) was THE way to stay in touch with friends. Well somehow, and I’m not sure who gave who’s screenname to who, but we started IM’ing each other. We talked. A lot.
We went to the mall and movies again with J and K, and this time we sat next to each other. It was my MISSION to sit next to him. I liked him, I wanted him to know. Of course I was nervous though – my last boyfriend had cheated on me and had the audacity to bring the girl to a popular weekend hangout knowing I would be there.
We saw “American Wedding”, part of the “American Pie” movies.
We kept IM’ing each other, growing closer and liking each other more and more.
Then on August 19th, through an instant message, he asked me out.
On the radio, “Boys of Summer” was playing – the cover by All American Rejects. No one was home. No one heard me scream from happiness.
The guy I was seriously crushing on ASKED. ME. OUT. Dream come true, let the fairy tale begin!
Our first ‘date’ was to the park. We walked around, talking about anything and everything. We walked to Wendy’s and had Frosty’s before he walked me home. Let’s not leave out the part about me lieing to my mom and telling her I was NOT with him but with a girl friend. Said girl friend called my house while I was out and asked for me. Yea, I got in trouble – grounded, actually. I’m sure my mom knew right then and there that this date was just the beginning.
She was right.
We’ve been together since August 2003. We had our first child in May 2005 (yes, the same month that I graduated high school), got married in January 2006, had our second child in March 2011, and our third in April 2012.
It hasn’t been a fairy tale meant for a Disney movie, more like a Lifetime movie. Ian has been there through so much, and was my rock during the time that my mom was diagnosed with cancer and when she passed away just a few months later. He could have walked away. He could have said “Heck no!” when we got pregnant as teenagers, but he didn’t. Through it all, he IS my Prince Charming.