How I Met My Husband

I was in a bar called Rumpshakers (it's closed now). My husband's band, and the boyfriend's band were both playing in it that night. I've been sitting in this bar for about 3 hours. My then boyfriend was a "social butterfly" type, so he'd pop in every once in a while, then disappear again. I'd been buying my own drinks, and talking to the drummer in the boyfriend's band.

My husband had no way of knowing I was with anyone, because the boyfriend was nowhere to be seen. My husband thought I was with the guy I was talking to for a while, but he realized we weren't acting like a couple the longer he watched.

He sat down a couple of bar stools over, and started a conversation. Yes, a conversation. No lines, nothing like that, he just sat down and acted like he was interested in what I was saying. Not the approach I'm used to. Anyways, I had a few more drinks than I would have had otherwise, and gave out more information than a sober person would have. I didn't give him my phone number, but I did tell him where I worked. This was Friday. Imagine my surprise when he showed up at my work on Sunday.

Okay, so, he shows up at my work two days later. I was surprised he even remembered anything I had told him. We were both drinking, and I'd never had anyone I'd met do that to me before. I was dumbfounded.

We went out and had a cigarette because I had a break coming, and we just talked out there. He told me a little bit about his band and himself, and asked me about my work schedule. At the time, I didn't know why I gave him that information, but I'm glad I did now.

This was in July of 1999. At first, my husband was only trying to make me a fan of his band, or so he says, but I'm sure there was more than that behind it. After about two weeks of him visiting me at work, and me sneaking away to see him every once in a while, I had to tell him I was in a relationship with someone else, and I was very sorry because I really liked him. I told him I was going to leave the relationship I was in as soon as I had the funds available to do so. I didn't see him again until September. I told him that I hadn't been able to forget about him, and I was almost ready to move out of the apartment I was sharing with my boyfriend. I told him I was only $100 short to move, and you know what he did? He gave it to me. He didn't "loan" it to me, he gave it to me. Who could resist that?

So, we started dating in September of 1999. He wanted to keep some of his independence, and I wanted to keep some of mine too, so we didn't even move in together until after we were married. He stayed at my house a couple of nights a week, I stayed at his once in a while, but we both kept our own places.

Our first date was the MInnesota Renaissance Festival. To this day, we go every year. Although my husband won't admit it, he goes because it was the start of the best time of his life. His words, not mine.

In January of 2000, he asked me to marry him. There wasn't anything really romantic about it or anything. He just said, "Let's get married." With no hesitation, I said "sure." He told me afterwards that he knew he was going to marry me the night we met. Two years to the day we met, we got married.

We just celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary this year. We both decided there must have been a reason why neither one of us had been married before, or had kids before. We were meant to be together, it just took us a little while to find each other.

He can be a little chauvanistic sometimes, but with that comes the "chivalry" thing. He still helps me with my coat when we go out, and he still opens doors for me. He calls me his "princess", and even though, we've had a couple of rough patches, neither one of us would change any of it.