15 years ago today, I went on my first date with my Tiffany. You know, I feel like such a cheeseball using my blog to write something about my wife when the last blog I wrote last week was about my son. But there are two important things to take from that sentence: I’m a cheeseball, and it’s my blog!
On September 22, 1994, I was 19 and she was 18. Lucky for me, I waited a year to mail off my application to Kansas State University. I should have transferred out of my two-year college in two years. But on day one of my third year, I met the woman who I would marry.
Guys, you know how it is when you’re single in college. First day of class and you’re checking out the new ladies. Well, there she was and wow was she hot! Call me a pig, but wow was she hot! We were on the newspaper together. I was the sports editor and she was a newbie. I tricked her into taking a women’s volleyball story that she’d need help on. Sure enough, she freaked, and I was there for the rescue.
We spent a lot of time working on that story for a couple of weeks, and I’m pretty sure that nobody but the players on the team read it. But it did the trick and we became friends. During that first month while we were becoming friends, I used to drive her home from school. I always had a Motown CD in my car and I played this song every time:
Of course, she didn’t realize that until later. But I still wanted to put that video in the blog for her today!
Anyways, on September 21, after going to In-N-Out for a burger with some friends and then celebrating a mutual friend’s birthday, I drove her home and asked her out on a date (after 15 or so minutes of nervous stalling). The next night, we went on our first date. Dinner at a steak place called Buffalo Ranch (I spilled my entire salad on my lap and brushed it on the ground — oops!) and a walk on the beach. We clicked and we’ve been together ever since.
I didn’t know which picture to pick. I hope this one is OK.
We’ve had our ups and downs, betters and worses (I don’t think that’s a word, but you know what I’m saying). We were kids back then, and now we have three of our own. I know, it’s nothing unusual to be married, but I’ll always vividly remember picking her up for that first date in my freshly-detailed car with a dozen roses. If you would have told me that day that we’d end up sharing a life and a home and so many memories that I’m starting to forget a lot of them, I don’t know if I would have believed it.
She’s been an incredible wife and mother and as I always tell her, I feel truly blessed that I get to hold her hand on this roller coaster called “life” that we’re riding. The person you choose to be your parter has such a huge impact on how your life turns out, and as I look over at her while she watches TV and has no idea what I’m writing, I think “yeah, that was a good decision.”
Back in 1994 and 1995, one of my best friends always used to say, “There’s an @$$ for every seat” when talking about the two of us, and he’s right. We’re two peas in a pod, totally made for each other. We celebrate May 23 because that’s the day we made the lifetime commitment to each other back in 1999. But we celebrate September 22, because since that day in 1994, we’ve been best friends.
