Once Upon a Time Nine Years Ago…

Happy Labor Day, friends! I hope you’ve all enjoyed the holiday weekend. We certainly have! (But more on that later.)

Spencer and I are doubly celebrating today. Even though I’ve already started thinking of December 13th as our anniversary, today is when we first started “going out” nine years ago. I know what you’re thinking… “Did you say NINE YEARS?!” Yes, yes I did.

Once upon a time in a middle school gym filled with noisy band campers, a handsome trumpet player and his friends came upon a group of girls sitting on the bleachers, including a lovely clarinet player (assuming you disregard the awful haircut, rolled up Soffe shorts, and overly plucked eyebrows). The handsome trumpet player took a liking to the lovely clarinet player, and she sought him out throughout the week of marching practice because he had a knack for making her laugh.

Fast forward through two months of eighth grade algebra class and late night phone calls, and the two were inseparable. On the night of September 1st, the handsome trumpet player called the lovely clarinet player like he did every night at 9 o’clock when neither of them had to use valuable minutes to talk. (Does anyone else remember those days? It’s difficult to even imagine.) Since no middle school girl can be trusted to keep a secret of such significance, the lovely clarinet player already knew that the handsome trumpet player intended to “ask her out” that evening, just before their 10 o’clock curfew.

So you can imagine the lovely clarinet player’s surprise when the hour came and went with no questions, admissions of burning love, or hints at prospective movie dates from the handsome trumpet player. Finally, a little after 10, the handsome trumpet player got the nerve to make a move… when suddenly, his father’s voice sounded in the background, and the phone was taken from his grasp. Click! The phone line went dead.

The lovely clarinet player was heartbroken. She had waited all day for him to ask her to be his girlfriend, and now that his phone had been taken away, he wouldn’t have the chance. Feeling dejected, she began to put away her phone and get ready for bed.

But wait! Her little Nokia was ringing. He was calling from his home phone! Breathless, the lovely clarinet player answered. The handsome trumpet player apologized for his father’s intrusion and proceeded to ask her for her hand in dating. The lovely clarinet player acted coy, but he saw through her act easily, and she admitted that she had been waiting all day for his question. She agreed to “go out” with the handsome trumpet player, and the two parted quickly for fear of alerting the sleeping dragon to the handsome trumpet player’s transgressions.

The lovely clarinet player updated her Xanga page and then went to sleep, dreaming of the following day when she would see the handsome trumpet player in algebra class. Through four years of high school, another four of college, multiple ups and downs, and the acquisition of a cat, the handsome trumpet player and the lovely clarinet player lived happily ever after!

Of course, that’s not the end. We still have a wedding to go through with, after all, but it is fun to think about where we started and how far we’ve come since that night nine years ago.

 

Any other high school middle school sweethearts out there?  Do you have any funny stories from the beginning of your relationship?  It’s always nice to hear from the “we’ve been together since the beginning of time” community!