Ten Years

Ten years ago today I met the man that would become my husband and the father of my children.

In August 1999 I had just moved into my new condo. I believe I moved in on Thursday evening, August 4th, and since I was working crazy long hours back then I didn't get to do much unpacking until the weekend. On Saturday I got a number of boxes unpacked and on Sunday morning I was really on a roll which presented me with quite a dilemma. Did I go to the birthday party I had been invited to that day or not?

When I first moved out here I was working as a production supervisor at a local printing plant. I had gotten the job through the parent company that owned both the company out here in Massachusetts and the one that I worked for back in Minnesota while I was in college. Both companies printed social and commercial stationery (wedding invitations and business cards basically). During my junior and senior years of college I worked as a typist in the social stationery division typing wedding invitations, birthday invites, and baby announcements. When I moved out here they put me in charge of the shipping, cutting, and slitting departments. Slitting is the method in which business cards are cut down.

But I digress....

One of the girls that worked in the slitting department had been on me for awhile about setting me up on a blind date. I knew that I needed to do something to start meeting people but I was really hesitant. First it was going to be just a blind date. Then it was going to be me, the mystery man, and her and her boyfriend so that I would feel less awkward. She even showed me a picture of him but I kept putting her off and kept putting her off until finally she said "You know what? My son's birthday is this Sunday. You'll be there. Lincoln will be there. Thirty other people will be there. How does that sound?" I finally agreed to attend but not without looking for every possible excuse to get out of it.

As I said above I had spent all day Saturday unpacking my boxes. Sunday morning I was back over at the Walker's getting more of my stuff since I had been living in their basement for the past two months, when I saw an add in the paper for a comedy show in Boston that night. The comedian was Anthony Clark. I decided to call and see if I could get a ticket to the show that night and that if I was successful I either wouldn't go to the birthday party or I would at least have the excuse of leaving early. I called and found out that they did have tickets available but that Anthony Clark had cancelled due to illness or something and a different comedian would be performing that evening. I decided not to buy the ticket and headed out to Wal-mart for a gift suitable for a young child.

At that time I had no experience with gift giving for toddlers and I remember walking through Wal-mart talking to my Mom on the phone trying to get some advice. I also remember saying something along the lines of "Ugh...I can't find anything. I should just skip this and go home and finish unpacking" but then I found some little Sesame Street toy and decided to suck it up and go.

After leaving Wal-mart and heading home to wrap the gift it was time to head out for the birthday party. I wasn't very familiar with the area yet and managed to get horribly lost. I finally called the house and they were able to give me directions to the party. I'm surprised I didn't decide to call it quits right then and there but I'm sure I was thinking "I've already gotten out of the unpacking mode and I bought the gift. I might as well go."

I remember walking into a house full of people and greeting my co-worker, and host, Mary. Across the room she pointed to Lincoln and introduced us across a roomful of people. Talk about awkward. I don't remember much about the party. I'm sure there were a million things going through my head at the time. I do remember going outside and Mary, her boyfriend Russ, and Lincoln were all standing there talking so I stopped and chatted with them. This was the first conversation that I had with Lincoln and I'll be honest....I have NO idea what we talked about. I do know that Lincoln and I spent the rest of the afternoon together and I was reluctant to leave that night (Thank God I hadn't bought a ticket to the comedy show!)

Another memory from that day is going into the bathroom after I'd been talking to Lincoln for awhile and noticing that I had my shirt on inside out. Once again, talk about awkward! Luckily he hadn't noticed. It was a light green ribbed t-shirt, and it looked pretty much the same both inside out and right side out. My hair was long enough to cover the tag.

The other thing I remember is sitting outside as the party wrapped up and still chatting with Lincoln. It started to sprinkle so we headed for our cars and - this is the part I still give him shit for all these years later - he gave me HIS phone number instead of asking for mine. What the hell??? Don't put me in that position. I didn't want to be the one in charge!!!

The next night, Monday, I went to dinner with Deb Walker and I clearly remember telling her that I could see myself marrying him. I followed the "two day rule" that was common in dating at the time and waited until Tuesday night to call Lincoln. I didn't get home from work until about 7:30/8:00 p.m. in those days and I must have called him right when I got home. We talked for over 2 hours before he invited me over for dinner that night. The day before we had been talking about food and somehow Hamburger Helper stroganoff had come up in the conversation. I was probably listing the few items that I knew how to cook. On Tuesday night Hamburger Helper stroganoff came up in the conversation again so after two hours of conversation he invited me over saying that he had all the makings for stroganoff at his place. I headed over there and told him I would be there in about 30 minutes. What I didn't find out until much, much later was that the second he hung up with me he jumped in his car, raced to the store, and bought what he needed to make the meal. Isn't that sweet?

We ate dinner and talked until about 1:30 in the morning. He finally kissed me when he walked me to my car. I suppose I could have kissed him but he made me call him first so really, it was his turn.

And so began our first 10 years together.