One Year

When my neighbors invited me up for dinner one Thursday last May, I had no idea it was a set up. They said another friend was coming over, too. A nice guy they thought I would like. Somehow, I didn't connect the dots that they meant like and not just...like.

It wasn't until he showed up with a bottle of wine and acted extremely, umm...nervous...that I realized this was more than a casual dinner affair. Once it dawned on me that I was being set up, I groaned internally and prepared myself for an awkward evening of making nice. I plotted my early exit while I made polite small talk and gulped wine.

I'd like to say that Jason wooed me from the beginning, and that night was the start of our beautiful life together, but it wasn't. He was nice, and he was cute. He played on an adult soccer team that I was really interested in joining. Other than that, sparks failed to fly.

But the next week, there he was, knocking on my door and asking me out to dinner with him and the neighbors. Not taking no for an answer. I went, because dinner out with adults sounded like fun, but thinking it could get weird when I had to tell him I wasn't interested. We went to Outback Steakhouse, and the waiter came to take our drink order.

He ordered a gin and tonic. He had my attention.

As we talked, we began to uncover a lot of commonalities (not related to cocktail preferences), and I began to give the guy a closer look. He broke so many of my dating rules. In fact, I think he broke all of them, and yet....after that dinner I began to wonder about this man.

He showed up again the next week, and this time he came bearing gifts. He brought tiki torches for my patio, with a million dollar line that hooked me: "No need to thank me. I consider these an investment in my future." Ha! Little did he know...

We spent our summer nights talking for hours by the light of those tiki torches. It wasn't long before I was a smitten kitten, and no one was more surprised by that than me (except maybe him). Neither one of us was looking, and neither of us expected the other to be The One. And yet, here we are, one year later...

There's a song by The Script out now that is a perfect melody for our relationship. After our eventful first year together, it often feels to me like Jason and I have been together for much longer than we actually have. Has it really only been one year?! We've packed a lot of life-altering changes into a very short time, and this song is spot on for our relationship: For the First Time.

What a crazy, surprising year we've had. Here's to many more, hopefully less eventful, years to come.