Who Needs Tomorrow?

I met my main dude thirty years ago, when I was a wee freshman in high school. He was a sophomore. We sat in the same classroom where we blurted out things like “Wo ist Monika?” and “Guten Tag!”

We were straight-A nerds before straight-A nerds were cool. (Wait a minute – I said that like that was a good thing. Why don’t I just put that KICK ME sign back on – sheesh!) Now, where was I? Oh yes, dating myself. This was back before schools replaced hallway storage containers (called “lockers”) with metal detectors.

Anyway, we passed notes back and forth in class that surpassed the usual “Isn’t our teacher a dork?” variety. They were twisted random stories created by us alternating sentences. (And it only took me twenty years to figure out that the whole writing thing was my calling.)

He introduced me to AC/DC and Van Halen. I introduced him to Steve Martin and Levi’s 501s.

We were “just friends” for much of that time, although there was a brief period where we crossed the friendship boundary. He says I was his first crush. He remembers precisely which song was playing on the radio when we first kissed in my 1973 motel-soap-colored Datsun 710: (I’m The One by Van Halen).

He asked me to his Senior Ball. He came over to my house to pick me up and while pinning on my corsage, my mother snapped this shot:

Then we went to his house where his mother cooked us a candlelit dinner. After dessert, it was off to the ball.

“We’ve Got Tonight” was the theme and we no doubt slow-danced to that song. Hell, I don’t remember, ask him.

He took me home and then I never saw or heard from him again…

…Until about fourteen years later after somebody invented the internet and somebody else forwarded a joke to the both of us and he saw my email address and said, “Hey is that you?”

(Okay, there’s way more juice to that part of the orange, but I’m saving it for when my scandalous memoir comes out and hits the NYT best seller list, so don’t worry, you’ll read about it eventually.)

We gabbed on the phone for a couple of years until we were both single and then HOOKED IT UP, BABY!

I told him a month after that that he was the one. A few months later he got down on bended knee and presented me with a rock (the sparkly kind, not the Charlie Brown Christmas stocking kind).

He said my mother gave him her blessing way back when and since she’s gone, I couldn’t confirm it, so I just took his word for it.

When we told my Dad and stepmom about the engagement, they didn’t care if we had a big wedding or a small one, but they just wanted to be there. So we said, “Hey, we’re going to Hawaii in a few months, what about just doing it there?” and a wedding was born. My father gave me away and served as best man, my step mother was the matron of honor and that was the extent of the guest list.

That was nine years ago today. We are currently back in Hawaii celebrating what they said would never last. Those silly prognosticators.

Also? Yesterday as we drove to Lahaina, we heard Bob Segar sing “We’ve got Tonight” on the radio. No lie.

The Purple Goat Lady is having babies…