Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Eleven years ago....

11 years ago this week my husband turned 27 and got the best present of his life.

ME!

Oh, I'm so funny!

But this is a true story I'm about to share with you all.....it's a pretty neat one too, if I do say so myself.

John and I got to know each other when we worked together for about 4 months at a restaurant.  He was the hot bar manager / bartender and I....well I was the hot waitress.

Oh, I kill myself.

That's not exactly how we met though.

He likes to say I fell for him first.

Which I suppose is true.  John got to experience one of more embarrassing moments in life.

It was the summer I was 22.  My best friend and I decided we were going to check out this new restaurant.  Eat some appies and have a couple of cocktails.  It was early summer and so the tank tops and sandals were out in full force.  I happened to be wearing some black wedge sandals and as I stepped out of her car and started to walk toward the restaurant I somehow landed face first on the pavement with a broken sandal.  I'm still not quite sure what happened.

Yes, I was stone sober.

I got up, dusted myself off as Erin laughed her ass off at me and I too, at myself.  I'm a bit of a clumsy creature and embarrassing things seem to happen to me quite regularly but that's a whole other set of stories.

As we walked into the bar area, it seemed as though everyone was staring at us.  And laughing.

AND why were they clapping?

And WHO was that amazingly hot guy walking towards us with the biggest smile ever and gorgeous legs to boot?!

And why was HE laughing...and clapping too?

Oh God.

NO!

It turns out, folks, that although you could not see INSIDE the restaurant from the outside, all of the people inside the bar area could clearly see my graceless face plant that happened outside.  Directly in front of them.

Awesome.

So not only did I look like a complete idiot in front of total strangers but also in front of the most gorgeous guy I'd ever seen.

It turns out he was quite charmed by my klutzy nature.

Erin and I sat down and ate. We had some cocktails and flirted with the baseball players.  Well, Erin did.  Me?  Not so good at the art of flirtation.

And John?  Well, he tried to hold a conversation with me but he made me so nervous it was like my mouth was full of marbles.  I couldn't even talk for fear of sounding like a total nincompoop, instead I just sat there and looked like one.

That's the story of the very first time I met my future husband.

Fast forward 6 months and I ended up working there.  Conscious or subconsciously?  I'm not sure.

A bit stalkerish?  Possibly.

I wondered where he was the first couple of shifts I served tables.  It turns out he still worked there but went on Christmas holidays to spend time with his family out of town.

A family guy.

Noted.

I liked that.

It also turned out that he actually REMEMBERED me.  Not only did he remember me and the total moron I made of myself...he remembered what I was wearing that day too.

Noted.

And I LOVED that.  (a bit stalkerish?  possibly. still....LOVED)

We had been working together for a  couple of months when out of the blue in the middle of being slammed on a Friday night he was passing by the restaurant owner and me. He put his arm around my waist and said to our boss;

"I'm going to marry this girl someday.  We're going to have 2 kids.  NOT 3 because I don't want any child of mine to be scarred with middle child syndrome".  Can you tell he's a middle child?

I took it all in stride.  I certainly wasn't going to take him THAT seriously.  Besides, this was all news to me.  We'd never even shared a kiss at this point!

Turns out that my husband might have a few psychic abilities, friends.

Now look at us, 11 years of togetherness.  Almost 5 years of marriage and 2 kids (with none on the horizon) later.

What can I say?  I got lucky.  He's everything I ever dreamt of marrying as a little girl.  Not only is he tall, dark and handsome but he's the calm when I'm storming, the rock that I lean on, the reasoner when I'm being a little unreasonable, the logic when I'm being totally illogical.  The yin to my yang.

To quote Phoebe from Friends "He is my lobster"

He's my biggest supporter in all that I do...including this blog.  Even though, at times, a different light other than amazing has been shone upon him.  He takes it all in with great humor.

John is also an amazing parent and we complement each other very well in that department.

Like, when I feel like I'm going completely berserk and my head might start spinning, he takes over....and lets me run away.

For a couple hours anyway.

I also love watching and listening to him with the boys.  He is fun, super affectionate, is great at making up silly songs and bedtime superhero stories and when the time comes for it, a good disciplinarian.  I mean that in the best way.  He always ensures that his boys know he loves very much them no matter what their behaviour entails.  That's quite a skill.

John, you are the best thing in my life.

Happy (early) Birthday to you.....

Love,

The gift that keeps on giving; aka January, your loving wifey, Baluuuuga



“Love doesn't make the world go 'round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.”

  Franklin P. Jones

6 comments:

Perfect Dad said...

Sounds vaguely familiar. My wife and I met while working at a restaurant too. McD's. Also 11 years ago. And she also knew she was going to marry me from our second meeting. And I'm going to be 38 this year.

Wait a sec, you didn't plaigerize my back story did you!

It's not my birthday 'till summer. Whew, you're safe.

Nice story.

Ellen said...

I knew a lot of this story GG - except the part where he said he was going to marry you before your first date. What you don't know GG is that I told the "Spirit of the Universe" the kind of husband I would like you to marry and he appeared in the form of John. Wasn't that clever of me? ; ) Wonderful, heartfelt story and as always - very well written. Love you to the moon and back.

Ellen said...

Your fridge magnet poetry is very appropriate for this story as well. Well done.

January Dawn said...

Thank you, thank you! It's funny "Perfect Dad" how our lives seem quite similar! I hope you didn't make your wife suffer for 6 years wondering if she was ever going to get a proposal! ;)

Tina @ Life Without Pink said...

Great story!! I am love reading how everyone met their husband! Thanks for linking up #projectmarriage

Kristin said...

Ah,just checked out your cottaging post (and I HATE mosquitoes as much as you do, but looks like a great time with friends!! Making memories for the kids! Love that!) Anyway, I noticed this post on the side of your blog and because I was thinking I recognize John from somewhere this was my lead to my memory. I used to serve at Armadillo Texas Grill and I think he and his buddies were regulars at the bar there and he would have known some of the staff too. Ask him if that was him. I'm pretty sure it was now that I know he (and you) were in the industry.
I love how he was predicting your future way back then! So cool!