It's occurred to me that I've never really posted a detailed account of my life story. Or rather that's what this blog is, perhaps, a work in progress where I can account for all of the events that have led up to who I am today. But there are things I don't want to forget, things that I can feel slipping as life moves forward. So I'm taking the time to remember the details.
February 25th 2001
I was seventeen years old when I first met Mike. And I was dressed like a clown, complete with fuzzy yellow wig, rainbow flowers painted onto my cheeks, and a big giant striped outfit.
No one that I know can say that they met the love of their life, the would be father of their children, while dressed up like a clown. As embarrassed as I was way back then, I can look at it and laugh today. We'll always have a story, that husband and I.
I was working as the Burger King clown and had just finished up a birthday party for a little kid where I got to play Simon Says and crawl around in the play place for an hour and a half. It wasn't a bad way to spend an evening. Plus I made tips, always a perk for a seventeen year old working for minimum wage (which, let me tell you, was significantly less in 2001 than it is now). When I went back to change after the party was finished I was asked to serve food to the drive thru for a few minutes while a co-worker ran an errand. Of course there was no time for me to take my costume off and I figured that it would only be a few minutes, so I'd live and there would be no damage done.
Enter four rowdy teenagers who thought that it would be the funniest thing ever to walk through the Drive Thru. (We were young, obviously our, or rather Mike's, sense of humor is reflective of that) The manager on duty that night didn't think it was so funny though, and stuck his head out the window and yelled at the loitering teenagers, telling them that if they wanted their food that they would have to come inside and pay.... something about Burger King being liable for them getting ran over in the parking lot for being stupid, I don't know, I was too mortified to remember exactly what was said. Of course after the yelling the manager retreated to the back leaving me all alone, dresses up as a stinking clown, to deal with the fallout.
The four boys came in, laughing. But one, the polite one, the one with the gorgeous green eyes, apologised. He paid for the food with a crooked smile and was gone. A second later my co-worker was back, relieving me of my drive thru watching duties. I ripped the bright yellow wig off of my head and ran outside hoping to catch the boy who had left me speechless.
I'm a shy person by nature, I always have been. So this was huge for me. I had no idea what I would have said to him if I had caught him, if anything. But I tried. Unfortunately he was long gone. All I knew was that he had long hair, midway to his back, pulled into a pony tail, with fire engine red streaks running through it, and he had kind eyes. I secretly hoped that he would come back in again, because I was sure that I would remember him if he did.
Later that night after I had gotten home, and took the longest shower possible, scrubbing the face paint and stink of greasy cheeseburgers off of me, I plopped myself down in front of my computer.
In 2001 AOL Instant Messenger was all the rage. Everyone had one, each with a quirky screen name that was unique to them. Mine was Tigerlilyz, complete with that arbitrary "z" at the end to make it stand out. I was mid conversation with a friend telling her all about the hot stranger that came into my work that night when I got a random IM from someone who was not on my friend list. I clicked to accept, and as luck would have it, it was Mr Green Eyes himself.
We chatted for a bit and made the Burger King connection, or rather I told him of the Burger King connection since the picture on my profile looking nothing like that evening clown attire. He asked me out for the following night.
Way back then there was no such thing as keeping your information private on the Internet. If you put it out there, it was available for all the world to see. Maybe that's why I don't see a problem with blogging, but anyways. Mike found me with a simple search of local profiles because he was bored one evening and looking for someone to talk to. At the bottom of my html tricked out page (complete with purple background and turquoise letters thank you very much) I had a lyric from one of my favorite songs at the time in the "Favorite Quotation" section. And it was because of that lyric that he chose to IM me, thinking that we might have the same taste in music.
Yes my hair was in cornrows and yes the front of it was dyed turquoise to match my dress. And it was permanent. My mother wasn't extremely pleased with that. (ten points if you actually know the song)
At first I blatantly ignored the binging box on my computer screen. I was always getting creepers who liked to instant message me. It was a common thing way back then. But he was persistent, and so I moved on to vague one word answers, hoping that he'd get the point. Obviously he didn't. But once we made the Burger King connection, that changed and we sat up all night long talking and exchanging emails. It turned out that we had a few friends in common as well as interests and that we'd actually went on a small school band trip together that our schools merged together on just months prior. (Yes, we were both band nerds, don't knock it!)
February 26th
We made plans for Mike to pick me up from work for our first official date together. Needless to say, I was flying. Our plans included meeting up with some of Mikes friends to go and sit in a dark basement and watch movies. I was hoping for a cuddle and thinking that if we watched a scary movie I could pretend to be frightened...
But plans change. I ended up getting sent home from work early that night thanks to a missed break and something about child labor laws saying I could only work so long without one. So home I went, my evening plans with the cute green eyed boy uncertain. We hadn't yet exchanged phone numbers, mostly because unlike today, not everyone on the planet had a cell phone. So I emailed him that I was home and left my number for him to call me if he wanted to pick me up at my house instead so that we could get together.
If you would ask Mike about that night, he'd tell you that I stood him up for our very first date. Apparently Mike didn't get the email I had sent him hours earlier. Also it was apparent that I was the only one sitting at my computer staring at my inbox pining over this boy. He went to pick me up from my work at Burger King as scheduled. He waited in the parking lot, just like I told him to in case I was running a few minutes behind. 45 minutes later and no sign of me he finally went in and asked if I was there only to be told that I had went home hours ago. A very dejected Mike went on to his friends house without me while they consoled the poor guy who got stood up by some random chick from the Internet.
February 27th
Mike finally got my email and together we shared a laugh over the missed connections of the previous night. This time he did pick me up from work. Together we went to Denny's for dessert.
He ordered a slice of Peanut Butter Pie.
I ordered a bowl of plain vanilla ice cream.
He thought I was crazy for ordering such an odd thing.
He thought I was even crazier when I told him that I don't like chocolate.
Luckily he stuck around.
February 28th
I had the evening off from my clown duties, so we, like normal teenagers, hung out together at the mall. We ended up back at his house, where sitting on the his mom's kitchen floor leaning up against the refrigerator, the beautiful green eyed boy asked me to be his girlfriend.
Obviously I said yes.
And the rest is history.
