twenty years ago...

today, I was in a frenzy most probably. I was finishing up my final exams in university and a few weeks away from getting married to my long time boyfriend. A year before that, he had proposed during a rainy long week-end camping trip. We had been dating for 7 years.

I so remember the first time I laid eyes on him. First day of CEGEP. He was sitting in front of me in a Creative Writing class. He had long hair, a moustache, a cowboy hat, an old worn out t-shirt with the sleeves cut off showing off his tanned muscular arms. I was instantly smitten. He had a bad boy edge I just couldn't resist. I made a point of getting to know him. I knew his class schedule by heart and would arrange it for us to go home together (an one hour bus/metro ride)as we lived in the same area. We even shared a locker. He had a girlfriend, but that didn't deter me. Slowly but surely I knew I was going to make him mine. So we became good frineds, worked on projects together, took the same classes, became lab partners. He was smart and fun and outgoing. I was only smart. Before I knew it, he dumped his girlfriend. We were still just friends. Then my 18th birthday came along. I was going downtown clubbing with a whole bunch of girlfriends to celebrate. Unbeknownst to me, they invited him along knowing I had a crush on him. Before the night was over, we had our first kiss. What a birthday present. And here I am soon about to celebrate my 27th birthday with him!!! Mind boggling. How much we've been through. How much we've done together. And amazed that we are still each other's best friend.

SSSOOOOO, I've been bugging him for a while. Twenty years married. We need to do something special. And we are!! Just got our plane tickets and we are indeed going to Vegas!!! Not somewhere I ever really wished to go but seems perfect right now. Got the babysitters, all of them, lined up. (Amazing how many people it takes to replace ONE mom). We are leaving for 3 nights. We are staying here. He's actually been invited to attend a convention there so there's this whole package of hotel/meals/entertainment going along with it. Yep, LONG airplane ride with NO kids. Going somewhere new. I'm a wee bit excited. We're even joking about possibly going to one of those quicky wedding chapels for a vow renewal. And getting ourselves new rings while there. It's not a long trip but who cares, it'll feel like we were gone forever and I think that after 3 days we'd miss the kids anyways. Just last night we were watching them swimming and we both sighed and looked at each other and smiled. We knew what both of us were thinking. We are so lucky. We have such a beautiful life. A home we built, 3 amazing kids we created and still being together.