Day 23: Happy Anniversary

February 1st marks the 29th anniversary of my first date with the man that I would someday marry. As first dates go, it was unusual. Unusual for many reasons, which I will not share with you. But I remember when I told my friends that I had a date with Mike Jones they said, "THE Mike Jones?"

Mike had a bit of a bad boy reputation, which is pretty funny to anyone who knows him now.

Our first date happened in a bowling alley. Well, it started in a bowling alley. I had a bowling class (at LSU) and we were having a tournament that night. So I told Mike that I would go out with him, but he had to come and watch me bowl first.

The bowling alley at LSU is (or was) in the middle of the student union, so it was a bit crowded in there that night, and many of our mutual friends were hanging out. Mike quickly found his friends and they soon struck up a conversation about me (so I learned later). He bet his friends that he could get a date with that cute brunette on lane 3. They took his bet and he walked over to me, made small talk, asked me to write my phone number on his hand (which seemed crazy to me, but I did it) and then he walked back over to his friends and told them he had my phone number and a date immediately following the class. Then he proceeded to collect his winnings. (I never knew this story until we had been together a long, long time!)

He told me that night that there was something special about me. (I quickly recognized it as a "line") But three dates later in as many nights, he told me that I was the woman that he was going to marry. And he was right.

All that to say, I am grateful that he chose me. Happy Anniversary.