An unexpected meeting...
I'm going to take you back to January of 2002. I was in college, leading a pretty normal college life, going to classes, having a good time with friends, preparing for a future of "adulting". I was having one of "those weeks" and a good friend convinced me to go to this bar with him that I would not normally go to. My first thought was "absolutely not. I DO NOT hang out at a place like that". You see, it wasn't one of our normal hangouts. It wasn't in the best neighborhood, and I silently scoffed at the clientele when we walked in the door. But after a few minutes thought, why not? The music was good (where are my Usher, Nelly and Cupid Shuffle people at??) Oh- and the drinks were cheap. Big plus for college kids! There was a DJ, dancing, a lot of noise and a VERY smoky atmosphere. I decided to make the best of it. But the course of that night changed me forever.
I wish I could say that I tell our children and future grandchildren that we had some fairytale meet in the park, surrounded by flowers and sunshine. Looking back though, I guess it doesn't matter. We keep in G rated and say we met through friends (not in a bar!), which isn't totally a lie. My friend's friend was friends with my husband. So over the course of our few hours there we had a few short interactions. By the end of the night, my friend's friend said that he was interested in me and wanted to come over and talk. He came over and said hi. I remember that he was tall, and wore nice shoes (weird huh? To remember something so trivial). We made small talk and by the end of the night he said "can I have your number?" I said "Sure, you're not going to call me anyway". He looked a little stunned. I said, "I'm just being honest. And I really am not looking for anything". I had been burned a few times in the past... but then again, who hasn't? So to say my expectations were low was an understatement. But he proved me wrong. He did call. He called the next day and invited me on a date.
The night we met taught me a REALLY hard lesson. That maybe I shouldn't have been so judgmental. Maybe I shouldn't have been so quick to think that he wasn't a good person with goals and dreams and a good heart just because we were sitting in some dump of a bar. There I said it. That bar was a dump. But it taught me a lesson of a lifetime. That things are almost always NEVER as they seem. I met my husband there....in that "dump"...and I am thankful every day for that chance meeting that wasn't supposed to happen.
