Eight Is NOT Enough ;)

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Today Kevin and I officially "celebrate" the day we met. We actually "met" a week earlier at a bar (The Shamrock or as we lovingly called it The Scamrock - CUTE eh?) Kevin was boozy & I was not - I was sick, taking too much medication and only went out because a friend came back into town and my girlfriend, Betsy, said I just HAD to go out. That night, a week before Valentine's day, Kevin & I hung out at an after-bar party that he talked me into going to (I thought he just wanted me to drive him there because I was sober!) Then we went to Econo to buy & share a frozen pizza in the middle of the night. We just left it at that. Middle of the night Jack's pizza and a lot of stupid jokes.

I thought he was not interested so life went on until I came into work the morning of Valentine's Day & I opened by email and there was his name staring back at me! I was shocked and surprised that he wrote me. In part, because when I started back at Northern Michigan University for grad school they (being the IT people or random e-mail gods - whoever actually assigns collegiate email addresses?) changed my e-mail to some convoluted e-mail address that was vastly different from the usual first initial, last name @ nmu.edu e-mail addresses. AND because I had a psycho ex boyfriend I requested to have none of my information be published in the student directory. How he figured out my email address is a mystery and he just told me "it was hard but I knew I liked you because I kept trying." I still have all those early emails printed out and saved away (partly because they are hysterical but partly because I just knew he would be in my life forever from that day forward...)

He was finishing his undergrad degree and I was completing my master's that spring. Neither of us had any idea where things would go. Most of the Canadian hockey players said they did not/would not date American girls seriously because they generally had no desire to live in the US (ie: Canada = God's Country.) Also, Kevin "quit" school a few weeks later to play semi pro in Port Huron for the remainder of the semester and would be coming back that summer to complete his last semester then planned to move back to Winnipeg.

But we had so much fun together - I have never laughed so hard and felt so wonderful about another person like this. It felt (gulp) magical (CHEESE BABY CHEESE)! At that point when I met him, I had given up on falling in love and was ready to live my life without someone - to travel and enjoy being single after a year of struggling with the horrible feelings & struggles of removing myself from an abusive relationship. And suddenly here was the ONE. Could it be possible?

And it was because eight years later... here we are. So different, yet so very much the same. Kevin still makes me laugh until my belly aches. Together we made the most beautiful charming wonderful little boy and Kevin is truly a wonderful father. Every day he amazes me with his strength of character, his charming personality, his work ethic and his love for myself & Matthew. We have struggled no doubt as all relationships do but we have also "survived" those times and we continue to do so. That is magical! Eight years running and I know there will be many, many more - I would say 80 years here but yo that would make 114 and EKKK!

My favorite musical group is Dave Matthews and every time I hear this song from Stand Up (Old Dirt Hill, Bring That Beat Back) I think of Kevin and how it felt during those early days and how it continues to feel eight years later... It is still magical Kevin - I love you, thank you!

I ride my bike down the old dirt hill,
first time without my training wheels.
first time I kissed you I lost my legs,
bring that beat back to me again.
screaming shouting louder innocence
days when all we did would never end
bring that beat back to me again
that's when the days I remember seem so far away
that's what I miss oh take me back take me back to that beat again