Today is our one year anniversary. We got married at City Hall here in San Francisco in a simple affair with just a couple of close friends as witnesses. We'd been together for over 13 years, so it was time to make it legal. I thought I'd share how we met in celebration:
Our home town is really small, only about 25,000 at that time, so everyone knows everybody. I was a rebel girl. I liked to listen to fast music, drove a Camaro, smoked, partied, wore a motorcycle jacket, combat boots (steel toes), partially shaved head - just a poster-child for the teenage girl you did not want your kids to hang around with. I had a lot of friends and was kinda mean, especially to guys. I liked to fight and for a whole summer boxed in my backyard with guys on my skateboard ramp. I was a total tomboy through and through. I even wore a chain wallet and vowed never to wear a purse (which I didn't for another 10 years).
I was 15 when I met Mike. He had just started at the high school in the fall, so he was a "new" kid still. The first time we saw each other, we were passing each other in the hall. I'd heard about him from my best friend at the time because she had him in class. Our eyes locked for a bit and I smiled and looked away. He smiled and looked away too. That was what we did before we had class together because we were both a bit shy and had no real reason to start up a conversation. Starting in the middle of the year, we had the same art class. After the first class, Mike introduced himself to me. I already knew who he was and he already knew who I was, so it was just a formality. We talked briefly and then parted ways. I was very giddy to have finally talked to the cute new guy!
The art room had 2 rooms and the teacher let Mike work independently of the class, so he wasn't actually sitting in the same classroom even though we had the same class. My best friend and I, as high school girls do, talked outside the door of class waiting for Mike to come to class. We'd get really quiet and just stare at him when he walked through the door. I'm sure it made him uneasy. After he passed, we'd talk about cute he was and what he wore. He never said anything, just walked by and smiled. It continued that way for 3 whole months! My best friend had a crush on him and so did I, but we were too chicken to even talk to him.
Mike was different as well. He had long hair, was kind of quiet and just didn't fit into the all American high school kid mold. He was quite controversial when he decided to wear a kilt to school. No guy in the history of that high school had ever worn a "skirt" to school. He got whistled at and it totally isolated him from the "popular" crowd because of it. He also wore black fingernail polish on occasion. It really is not that big of deal, but in a small town like that people seriously think something is wrong with a guy like that.
In March, a guy we knew that had a crush on my best friend, asked if he could go cruisin' with us. (I was now 16, so I could legally drive by myself wherever I wanted.) We had just been talking about Mike and he was friends with him, so he offered to ask him to go along with us. We all four went cruising the main strip and over to a friend's house. Mike and I talked for a while and had fun.
We all decided to go out again a couple days later. It was an eventful evening with Mike almost getting jumped by a bunch of guys and me and my best friend, being wicked aggressive, jumped in and berated the guy that was trying to start a fight with Mike. It was awesome though, the guy backed down, we jumped in my car and I peeled out in my Camaro. We had a lot of fun. I really started to like him and started passing notes to him in school.
About a week later, we all went out again and, in traditional teenage fashion, our friend told me that Mike liked me. Our friend had to work and my best friend got a migraine and had to go home early that night, so we got to hang out alone and talk for a couple hours. When I was dropping him off, he asked me out. That was March 24th, 1993.
We've had our ups and downs, but have pretty much been inseparable since. I can't possibly imagine life without my husband and I know he feels the same about me. High school sweethearts, soul mates, whatever you may call it, but we were made for each other and we knew it right from the start.
