Once again, nothing much happening today. So I am going to tell you a love story. :-) It's about how Hubby and I met. It's actually pretty sweet, and if I didn't live it, I would have never believed it. You don't have to read this if you don't want to, regular readers, but it really is quite a story. I won't be offended if you don't.

I am a late bloomer. I didn't become "attractive" in the normal sense of the word until after college. Never really dated in high school, had a few boyfriends in college, but nothing really serious.

When I graduated college, I moved back to a large town close to where I am from. One night out on the town (which didn't happen very darn much because I was BROKE AS A JOKE) my girlfriend and I decided to go to this new club that had just opened up.

I used to play tournament darts, so it was always a pleasure to find someone that was willing to play. She and I played, and then just sat down and had some drinks.

Out of the blue this guy that I had seen earlier came over to me and asked "You busy?" I was so shocked, I just looked at him blankly...so he said "Come dance then." What a line, but it worked. I think I was to surprised to say no!

My hubby can really shake it. Nobody from around here can dance, so it was soooo much fun to dance with a guy that could move it. :) We hung out for the rest of the night and talked, he took me, my former roommates, and the rest of my girlfriends that were with me out to breakfast, and we stayed out until 7 in the morning!

At one point, I asked hubby what he did for a living, and he said that "I am home on leave from the Marine Corps. I will be going into hazardous duty training in 4 weeks."

So I'm thinking, great. This guy that makes me laugh to the point that I cry, this is going to be a temporary deal. Fabulous. :/ What should I do?

Since our first date, hubby and I were together constantly. He took my car every day, brought me to work, picked me up for lunch, and picked me up at the end of the day. He stayed at my apartment every night.

About 2 weeks after this all happens, and I am just starting to think about what is going to happen when he leaves, I get a call from a friend of mine in New Jersey. She and I had been dear friends since college, and of course I updated her on everything that had been going on.

For some reason, she wanted to talk to him. So I handed him the phone. They talked for about 1/2 hour, and then he handed the phone back and said "she wants to talk to you again." Immediately, I was told "Katress, go to the bathroom, I have some things that I want to tell you in private." So, I brought the phone into the bathroom and left poor hubby there wondering what in the hell I was up to.

Basically, she said "Go with him. I have never ever heard you sound so happy, and he's a nice guy, he passed the test (what test???). You need to follow him to wherever he goes. I don't care if he is going to be on hazardous duty, you need to go with him!!!"

So after I hung up the phone and went back to my room, hubby immediately started asking what "New Jersey" wanted. I wouldn't tell him. I'm thinking to myself, great, I'm going to freak out the best thing that has ever happened to me if I tell him what New Jersey said. I was very uncomfortable about the whole thing, and I knew that if I though it was possible, I would consider it. How in the world would we get around the fact that you are not supposed to be married when you are on hazard duty? (Not unless you are an E-6, which for enlisted means that you have at least been in for 8 years or so, on the average.)

After about two hours of pestering (hubby is very persistent) I finally broke, squeaked out "New Jersey thinks that I should go with you, but not without a ring" and buried my head under the covers.

Keep in mind this is all after about two weeks of knowing each other.

He said "well, I've been thinking that we needed to talk about that."

To make a long story short, he left in another two weeks, but not without buying me a ring. It was a custom job, so he didn't see it, but told me to pick it up and wear it when it was done.

I gave it back to him when he came home for Thanksgiving AS A SURPRISE after managing to be dropped without prejudice from Marine Security Batallion (hazard duty)...

...and came home over Christmas AWOL for four days so that we could get married.

We married in the County Courthouse on 31 December, 1998.

I moved back in with my parents after shipping all my posessions out to DC and he got situated on base, housing and all that. In February I drove 1600 miles across the country in two days with my cat Dante in the car, which is another story within itself, and managed to hit Washington DC just in time for the five 'o clock traffic-arrggghh!

We had a blessing ceremony for friends and family September 11th, 1999, which was 364 days from the day that we met.

When I tell people that I only knew my husband for two weeks before he proposed they think I'm nuts. When I say we were only together for about one month (actual time together, that is) before we got married, and I went into this not knowing where in the world I was going to have to move to, they look at me like I have totally lost it.

What can I say? We just knew? Maybe. I think I have a wonderful hubby. He's really something. We have had our disagreements, but overall I think we get along pretty well.

I wanted to get this down somewhere that I would have record of it. So if you have read this far, loyal readers, I would like to say thank you. I hope that you enjoyed my story. If I get any response, I will certainly write about my journey out to Washington from here. It was...um...an adventure. To say the least. :-)

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