Twelve Years Ago Today!

Posted on | February 22, 2008 | 6 Comments

February is a month of celebrations here at ChezArtz. As if Groundhog’s Day wasn’t enough reason to celebrate, the following day is my oldest friend’s birthday (chagrined as she is that after almost 30 years, she’s still four days older than I am–ha ha!), four days later, I celebrate my birthday along with my brother-in-law and my uncle. Then comes Valentine’s Day. And about a week later, we have a double celebration on Washington’s Birthday: Matt’s birthday and the anniversary of the day Matt & I met.

Yes, that means (if you’re doing the math), that Matt & I met on his 21st birthday, twelve years ago today. It’s a fairly fun story and, although we didn’t know it at the time, indicative of what was to come Although I know a few of you have heard this story before, it bears repeating…

My junior year of college, I studied in France at the University of Strasbourg. I boarded a plane in January and arrived a few weeks before my 21st birthday, on my own for the very first time. I was lucky to make a few close friends fast and we celebrated my 21st, although it was not the momentous occasion it might have been if I had been back at DePauw because after only a month abroad, the novelty of being able to walk into a bar and order a beer had already worn off.

Anyhow, at the end of February, we had a group trip to Paris with the American students at another French university, University of Nancy. I ran into a friend from Nancy once we got to Paris, who happened to be chatting with a very tall (and pretty cute!) guy I’d never seen before. As I walked up to say hello, I heard Beth say, “Well, Happy Birthday, Matt!” Having just had my own birthday abroad, and being the amicable person that I am, I wished him happy birthday and offered to buy him a beer. (And now comes the part that is so indicative of the rest of our life together) He looked at me like I had three heads, mumbled something non-committal, and spent the rest of the day trying to avoid me

The good news is that the very next day he had a change of heart and, when we found ourselves in front of the same painting in the Musee D’Orsay, we had our first conversation, which led to a ridiculously giddy day touring Paris, and, eventually to our first date and our first kiss that very night.

There are so many other fun little details from this story. For example, the fact that I had to hit up my Paris room mate for a razor that day because my initial intent (until meeting the love of my life, that is) was to “go native” and not shave. After six weeks, I was pretty hairy, and couldn’t envision having a date with said LOML with hairy pits & legs. Then there’s the location of our first outing together–some scary ex-pat Irish bar where a drunkard (not Matt!) literally fell asleep on my shoulder. Or the fact that I taught Matt to play Euchre after our first date, which would be fine except that I’m particular about my Euchre partners, very competitive at cards, and not a very patient teacher, so I’m lucky he was still speaking to me after the event (and lucky that I got that first kiss!).

All I can say is that, although I definitely hoped that very first night that Matt & I would end up together, I never could have imagined that things would turn out quite so well twelve years later. We were just kids then and although both of us had had some long-term (if unsuccessful) relationships, we really grew up together in those first few years and learned (with many bumps and bruises along the way) how to operate as a team.

From where I sit today, “happily ever after” never looked so good. Happy Birthday Matt!

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