A memorable day

Many things have happened on this day in history. Some of these moments in time are head scratchingly strange, some are filled with great sadness and others are equally tragic and curious. This date has special significance for me. Its the day he let me say "yes".

We met at college my junior year. He was a transfer student from out of state. I had seen him around campus that first semester, always with the same girl and always in the same old-style New York Yankees jacket that looked like it came straight off the set of The Natural. (My dad is an old "I-could-of-been" baseball pitcher and that movie was a classic in our house.) The girl turned out to be his sister and the boy turned out to be even more adorable than his jacket.

We went on our first official date at the end of February after having quite a few "college dates". Oh, you know.... grabbing a bite to eat in the cafeteria, studying in the dorm lounge, taking a walk around the campus. We dated for about 6 weeks before that dark and stormy night in April when he asked me to join him on this journey through the valley of tears. He hadn't intended to propose in a dorm room but the wild Texas weather had ruined all of his lovely surprises.

Little did we know that a few minutes later we would be joined by 100 of our fellow classmates who would pass those precious minutes with us in the hallway of a dorm seeking shelter from the tornado outside. Yes...it was quite a whirlwind romance!

We had no idea the number of tears in that valley or how a tornado's fury should have been the least of our concerns, but we are still here, clinging to each other and trudging along, enjoying life's little surprises, seeking shelter from the storms and looking for the blue sky ahead.