3 Year Anniversary

Three years ago today I married Howie. I met Howie on July 3, 1997 in Washington, DC. He and my brother were roommates at the time. I had decided to take the train down with my brother's girlfriend to see him for the holiday weekend. My brother met us at the train station with Howie and I remember thinking that he was cute and that he'd probably just think of me as his roommate's annoying little sister. I was wrong, when we went out to the comedy club that evening Howie held my hand under the table and smiled at me. The comedian on stage quickly noticed and proceeded to make fun of us for the rest of the show. After that Howie and I split up from my brother and his girlfriend. We went to a dance club and that's where we first kissed. Sometime after midnight on the 4th of July he and I decided that we were officially a couple. I know it sounds like we were moving quickly, and maybe we were, but I had never met anyone so wonderful in my life. He was genuinely nice. An actual nice guy, I didn't know they existed. Oh, and he was cute, seriously cute. I loved the way he looked when we first met at the train station, still dressed in his shirt and tie from work and he had a really nice summer tan. Anyway, we dated long distance for about a month and then I broke up with him. We were 18 years old, we were young! I had seen my sister and a number of other people get too serious too early in life and it never seemed to turn out too well for them. I knew I loved Howie, I knew it that first weekend, but what if I was wrong? What if I was just a stupid teenager over romanticizing things? I didn't speak to him again until spring of 1998. He was happy to talk to me, but he had just met another girl at college and it looked like I had missed my chance. While he dated this girl for the next two years we remained friends and talked almost every day. I had always hoped that they would just break up so that I could have another chance with him, but I think it was around January of 2000 I had given up on that. He had just graduated from college a semester early, his girlfriend had another year and a half before she finished college but I just assumed that he was going to ask her to marry him sooner or later. I decided that I was happy for him because he really seemed to love her and all I wanted was for him to be happy. So when I had finally prepared myself to move on it happened! They broke up! I couldn't believe it when he told me. I felt bad for him because he really cared about her but I was also thrilled because he was single again. I didn't want to be too eager, he had dated her for two years and he needed time. Howie and I remained friends, chatted as we always had. A few months later my brother called me to say that the Navy was sending him overseas for a year and asked if I'd like to live in his apartment for free while he was gone. A free apartment in Arlington, VA only 10 minutes from Howie? Of course! I moved to Arlington in June of 2000 but by this time Howie was dating other women in the area. None of them were serious, but I didn't want to be one of the rebound girls. I started to date another guy in the area for a few months but by the time autumn rolled around that relationship was over and the long line of girls that Howie had been dating had finally come to an end. I think that we were together almost every spare moment we had. You'd think that taking things to the next level would have been easy at this point, but I think it was actually more difficult because we had become best friends. There was more on the line, neither of us wanted to risk the friendship. We finally got over that and began dating again on January 20, 2001. We had moved in together by May so that I would be out of my brother's apartment when he came home. At this point we knew this was it, we knew that we were going to get married some day. On the evening of March 8, 2002 Howie took me to the Lincoln Memorial and asked me to marry him on the top step. I of course said yes and we were married on October 12, 2003. So, yes, three years of marriage isn't that long but I fell in love with him nine years ago and I will love him for the rest of my life. He's the sweetest man I've ever known and I am thankful for him every day of my life. He is always there for me, he's always strong for me when I need him to be, he understands me, he knows me better than I know myself, he has faith in me, he makes me feel sexy even though I'm sure that I appeared to be much sexier when I was 18 years old, and most importantly he's my best friend. So, Howie, I love you! Happy 3rd Anniversary, baby!