13 years ago yesterday the Hubs and I went on our first date.

We actually met about 12 days prior to our first date- at Victoria’s Secret of all places.  I worked there for 2 year during college- it was a fun gig! I always enjoyed working retail and trust me, we had some interesting customers at Vicky See’s. One day I greeted a customer, the Hubs, waking into the store as I was walking out for my break.  I noticed immediately what a cutie he was- but let’s face it, while Vicky See’s is a great place to work, it’s not a great place to pick up guys. If he’s in there shopping for anyone else other then his significant other, he’s most likely a little too odd for me and if he is shopping for his significant other, then he’s off limits.

I get back from my break and ask one of my co-workers if she saw the cutie who came in as I was leaving.  Turns out the cutie was a friend of hers from college and he dropped by to say hi and I caught his eye.  Well, well, well…

The Hubs came back in the next day to ask me out one night that weekend.  But I had plans every night- I was getting my wisdom teeth out on Monday and it was my last weekend of freedom before college started up again. I did tell him that my friends and I would be at a local bar/dance club on Saturday night if he wanted to join us and didn’t really give him a second thought.

Saturday night arrived and I went out to the bar with my friends. To my surprise, the Hubs showed up as well! We talked for a few, but frankly I was too interested in having fun with my friends to pay him much attention. He was a virtual stranger and it’s really hard to make small talk when the music is so loud.  About an hour into our night, a bar fight broke out (high class place, I know) so my friends and I opted to leave.  I made sure to say goodbye to the The Hubs before I left- telling him to have a good night!

Too bad he thought I told him to have a nice life.

The next day I got a call from our mutual friend asking why I was so stinking rude to the Hubs the night before. She was livid and I was confused.  Once she told me what he thought I said, we cleared things up and I asked her to please give the Hubs my number so I could apologize.  We talked later that night and found out we actually had a lot in common- my interest was definitely starting to peak.

But the next day, Monday, I got my wisdom teeth removed surgically.  I’ll spare you all the details, but suffice to say I couldn’t really talk until Wednesday even though the Hubs called every day to check on me.  When we finally did talk he asked me out for that Saturday and I agreed- warning him I still looked like a chipmunk and had bruises up my cheeks from surgery.  He said he didn’t care so we agreed to meet at a minor league hockey game.

On the way to the game I found out that the couple we were supposed to be double dating with canceled on us, so it was just the two of us.  I called my best friend and made her promise to call me half way through the game so I could bail if things weren’t going well (forgive me, I was 19!).  However, the date went wonderfully and I forgot to keep my cell phone handy so my very inventive friend called the Arena to have me paged.  Smooth, right?

After the game was over, we decided to grab a late dinner so we went to Applebees.  There we ran into the Hubs cousin, SuperCop, who – surprise!- was also a guy I dated for a while four years prior. That was both awkward and awesome because no one can break the ice better then SuperCop. We ended up having a great time out despite the fact that I completely forgot that salt + open wounds in your mouth = me crying terribly halfway through dinner.

Writing this all out now- my lukewarm reaction to him, “Have a nice life!”, my bruised & swollen face, his cousin who is my ex and my crying spell because I’m a dumbass, it’s astounding that the Hubs asked me out again.  But he did and I said yes and 13 year later we took the kiddos back to see the same AHL hockey team we saw on our first date.  I love it when life comes full circle!