You were standing at the bar in your sleek black cocktail outfit, I forget who was training you that day, I just remember the five o clock sun coming through the patio glass door and shining on that luscious dark hair. I immediately fell for a pretty face as the saying warns against but as soon as our first conversation began, I also began to fall harder for the intelligent funny woman that was revealed. I'll never forget the first compliment you gave me, pointing out that I was a hard worker. The fact that you recognized it in an under achieving twenty-eight year old busser got to the soft parts of my heart right away.
There were things that were opposite about us from day one and part of what has made us so great together has been discovering that those things appear different on the surface but ultimately came from the same place, passion, and beliefs. You are a country music lovin' gal and I'm a rebel rocker. Then fast forward a couple years and you are able to recognize Hendrix, the Doors, Dylan and more within a few seconds and there I am digging through your piles of cd's discovering the world of music you loved, except for the JLo. You are a financially conscious and aware person, to me money was another damn thing people kept saying I needed more of. When it came down to it, we both wanted financial success and being a team for the last ten years has brought us closer together with a goal in mind to not let money be our master, rather a servant on our journey.
And then came the day you met Monty and Sandy and were scooped up out of one life and into another. Luck? Coincidence? Nothing of the sort. It was a destiny that you created out of your own vision for yourself. Watching you become, watching you translate and transform the world you put yourself into was, for me was watching a person become a hero before my eyes. I worship sports, the ballet of it all, the brutal struggle to rise above the top level of competition in the world. You are well versed in my addiction to sports, yet my favorite athlete is you babe. Your work ethic, drive and competitive(for the right reasons) nature is the same stuff that put Michael Jordan on the top. Monty and Sandy are truly angels in our lives but the nice living you have earned working your brain and butt off for them has shown me you are an innovator and creator, as well a protecter and defender of those angels. Not to mention how much hot you looked in your business attire. Perhaps I've been washing and drying your dry clean only for all these years just to see you in what you'll buy next!
I'll skip like a rock on the day I almost drown us at high tide, rushing through a speech I pieced together and then couldn't remember as my sweaty hands unclenched the ring in my pocket. It's a fantastic memory for sure though because you said yes and then a year later, myself, our family, and friends got to see you shine in your wedding dress with the ocean and sun in attendance for our wedding day. All those people we love so much, whose lives we look forward to being more a part of when we can some day, it stands in my mind and smiles whenever I turn and your there. And now, five years past the day, I watch our three amazing sons and I'm flooded like the San Diego horizon at sunset. Pick a day since that day and the tears will start coming. The heartache and disappointment at not getting pregnant, the joy and wondrous fear of getting pregnant with two! The journey of leaving our love cottage on the beach and moving to the nesting place for mama and her two little eggs, and then watching you so driven and determined, happily enduring the process without a complaint, I think I did all the complaining for you. Then we were the four plus cats, another move, and bam! we are a family of five! Life is so wildly amazing and sharing the challenge and beauty of it with you and all of our circle has been the most incredible way to live it!
I think back to years before we met and a short story pops in my head. It was by Robert James Waller, the guy who wrote "The Bridges of Madison County". The story was entitled "Slow Waltz for Georgia Ann", or at least I think it was. In it sits an older man, a husband, at night in his chair by a living room fireplace burning low. He sits and listens to his wife in the other room molding clay on a potting wheel, and he drifts off on a drifters escape. He thinks of their previous lives and wonders if they ever met centuries before they were born. He worries because he never really gets that sense of dejavu. He thinks that they would've passed each other up because he would've been some traveling gambler and she among the ranks of royalty. The story comes back to me because after I finished it I remember wanting to arrive at that place one day, having a woman, house, dog, fireplace, and a life led together full of joys and pains and memories and laughter. I've found it with you and oh man, I've had so much dejavu since we met it's hair raising! I believe in past and parallel lives and universes. It's not hard, I just close my eyes and picture the person I would be had we never met. There he is, a stand-up dude, just a little less glint of fulfillment in the eyes and laughter in the belly. This is the life we were meant to lead, you gave birth to our sons and my wildest dreams. You've inspired me to create music, you've demanded that I pick myself up every day and make sure at the end of it I'm happy with my effort. You've shown more love for a man than anyone could wish for and I love you to the depths and heights of love. Happy Anniversary Gorgeous Queen of My Heart, my Marie!
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