The night before, I was up late at work, and did not get to sleep until around 2 PM the next day. She had asked it I wanted to cancel the date, and I had said no, I just needed a few hours of sleep and I would be fine. Of course, I overslept. I woke up when she called to say she was coming over.
A quick shower later and I was good to go, except for the minor fact that she was expecting chili, and I had not even purchased the ingredients yet! So far, this was not going as smoothly as I had thought. When Melissa arrived at my door, I explained to her that I had had a great idea. We should go shopping together, and that gave us some time to chat, and otherwise talk. She agreed, of course, since otherwise we would have had PB&J for dinner.
It worked pretty well, although we could not find one type of bean. When we got back, the plan was for us to talk in the kitchen while I cooked the chili. That also did not go quite that way. Melissa ended up taking over the cooking, and I opened cans. A moment of excitement arrived when I was allowed to add the red pepper. I got so excited I added about twice as much as was needed. Oops.
The only other snafu was the cornbread. The mix was for a smaller pan than I had. So I used aluminum foil to section off part of the pan, and made a pseudo-wall with that. It turned out pretty well, which was good, since the chili was very hot (for some unknown reason).
After that first date, she was still interested, which I took to be a good sign. She met my parents three days later when I did a quick day trip to DC to get my hiking boots (due to the snow we were getting in great abundance). I rememeber how, ummm... excited she was.
Zooming ahead a few months, I asked her to marry me on April 11, 2000. I do not think it was too much of a surprise since we had gone ring shopping a week earlier. And we had both known from almost the very beginning that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives with each other. I picked up the ring that afternoon, and set up a bunch of candles all over the living room. She called when she was on the way back from school, and I went on High Red Alert. Which means I sat closer to the door so I could stop her before she came in.
She was about to walk in, and I leaped up, took her bookbag, and then kind of pushed her back out the door. I had not lit the candles yet --I have a cat, and did not want Dax to catch fire. So I lit the candles, and had her come in. Then I got down on my knee, and asked her to marry me, more or less.
And guess what? She said
The rest, as they say, is history.
Melissa is currently a First Grade teacher in Montgomery County, MD. Her website for the students and parents can be found here. And you can find pictures of us here.