Geeky & Weird

Well, in two days (Sept. 1st) it will be 17 years Kevin and I have been together. I've been with Kevin almost half my life (we started dating when I was 19, he was 24). Wow, so long ago, 19 years old seems so long ago. So what has it been like being with the same person for so long. GREAT! He's my best friend, confidant, sounding board, the world's best dad and husband. Sure we've had our down and outs, but what relationship hasn't? But I keep saying, after 17 years I still like him a whole lot. There's a line from a song from the Fiddler on the Roof - "Swiftly fly the years, one season following another laden with happiness and tears" (Sunrise, Sunset). It's been 17 years of more happiness than tears, unless you count tears from laughing so hard you can barely breath.

That was one of the first things that attracted me to the love of my life. I know now that when he's nervous, he gets funny. Well he must have been nervous the first time we met face to face cause he had me laughing the whole time. Speaking of the first time we met, that's sort of where the title for this blog comes in. Kevin and I spent our first "meeting" over the telephone. We had a mutual friend and I don't really remember how or why, but we started talking on the phone. For almost two weeks that was the extent of our relationship. He was stationed at Homestead Air Force Base (no longer if full service since Hur. Andrew), so growing up just a few blocks from the base I had a prejudice about the looks of an air force man. Plus, Kevin has a really, I mean really, nice voice. So you get an image in your mind of what a person looks like. Well, let's just say he didn't look anything like I thought he would. He was very tall, very thin - geeky looking. But now, of course, I think he's gorgeous.

So where does the weird come into play? Well, I haven't asked him directly, but I'm sure he had an image in his head of what I would look like. Now I had just finished my first year of art school and well, I dressed a bit "weird". I still remember what I wore since he can - jean shorts that were cut from jeans that were like 4 sizes too big for me (back then I was nice and skinny - size 4 - maybe too skinny, anyway...), a thick black belt that kept them up, black loafers, no socks (you will rarely find Kevin without socks on - pool, shower, that's about it). I think I was just wearing a white t-shirt, he said I was pretty, but dressed weird.

So we often joke about how I thought he was geeky looking and how he thought I was dressed weird. Yet the geek and the weirdo fell in love, got married, traveled, had kids, and like each other very much after 17 years.

Picture of us just a year after we started dating. I was visiting his family for the first time.