How Did We Get Here from There?

I spent a good portion of last weekend wondering how we got “here” from “there.” Having come off of some pretty horrendous Valentine’s Days, the kind that leave you shaking your head and quaking in your shoes wondering about the next 50 years-- the “But it’s just a Hallmark Holiday” and “But we don’t DO Valentine’s Day” kind of Valentine’s Days--this year was completely different.

Tom surprised me with a trip to the exact spot where we met 17.5 years ago and where we got engaged 13 years ago. He arranged for my sister to keep the kids and we drove to our college town in North Carolina. We stayed in a humongous Tudor-style estate built in the 1930’s. This picture shows me at the exact spot where he popped the question.


He had planned a whole trip down memory lane which helped us remember some really wonderful times. We drove around to all of my old apartments, his old apartments, and even my former place of business, Blockbuster.

We walked around campus, realizing we probably looked like parents of prospective students, and we pigged out at our favorite Mexican restaurant.

We were comfortable enough with ourselves to choose to go to a Hollywood hit rather than some artsy-fartsy campus play that we most certainly would have watched in my English major/ripped jeans days. We realized all we really wanted was a huge vat of popcorn and a little of Liam Neeson's butt-kicking.

When I discovered there was a huge NCAA basketball game with Tom’s absolute favorite team playing, here in his college town, I asked it he wanted to see them play live for the first time in more than a decade.

This is what came out of Tom’s mouth: “We can go to a game another time; why don’t we drive around those neighborhoods where you used to walk and look at all the big houses?” Wow. Wow. Wow.



And, when I divulged that I was besieged by cramps (see possible tie-in with huge cheek zit), rather than act as if I had deliberately planned my cycle in a vicious attempt to ruin his fun and possibly his life, he said, “Oh well, why don’t we go check out the free Ice Cream Room down the hall?”



I may have landed in a parallel universe, but I love it here.

Hey Tom, you rock!