My Valentine

I watched vh1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s on TV this week, and I heard a line I loved. "Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls came in number 39 and someone on the show made the comment that this was a good couples song. They said, "Couples who came together with Goo, stuck together." I was like, "Oh, yeah! Rock on," because of course that was me and my man's song back in 1998 when we met and, yep, we're still together, and, yep, that's still our song. Good memories. Good memories.

Being that this is Valentine's Day, I say it's an excellent time to recall how I met my one true love. So, we digress way back to November of 1998, my freshman year of college. I came home for Thanksgiving break and made plans to meet my school friend Susan (hi Susan!) and go do... something. She made some comments beforehand about me meeting this guy friend of hers, but I didn't think too much of it at the time. I was more excited about getting to see Susan again.

So, the night of our reunion came. We, plus another friend of ours, piled into my 1990 Nissan Sentra and headed toward a honky tonk bar not too far away called Twisters. There, this guy friend of Susan's had already arrived and was playing pool with a group of his buddies. Susan introduced us, we all played pool for a couple of rounds, and then he asked me to dance.

I couldn't tell you what that first song was. It was probably some country tune. But after that, Garth Brooks "To Make You Feel My Love" came on and I oohed and awed over it because I'd just seen the movie Hope Floats with my sister. So, he asked me to dance again. After that, he hurried to Susan and told he he'd like to go out with me sometime. Susan relayed the information to me, and instead of giving her an answer back, I walked over to him and felt obliged to tease him for being unable to ask me out himself. He blushed, I told him Id' be delighted to go out with him, and the rest is history. We went on our first date.

The next afternoon, before I had to drive back to college, we caught a movie at the local theatre, watching Will Smith in Enemy of the State, and then we went to Sonic Drive-In for a fountain drink. Since that day, Sonic has become "our special place". We usually go there every Valentine's Day to celebrate... Except this year.

Being that 1999 was our first Valentine together as a couple, making this officially our ten year anniversary, we're pulling out all the stops. It's off to Down Stream Casino for us. I'm excited because I've never been to a casino before and am ready to get some good research in to hopefully be able to write about it in a book someday. He's just ready to get out of the house for a while and socialize with the other two couples going with us. All around, I think it'll be an experience.

Who knows what we'll do in 2019, but I'm certain we'll do it together. Because we've been stuck together by Goo and our romance is one of those "for the long haul" doozies.

This Post is dedicated to my Valentine. Thank you so much for ten wonderful years. I love you!