i fell in love with the boy at the rock show

So this last week my husband and I celebrated our TEN YEAR dating anniversary. Now I realize that once you get married you get a new slate of sorts where the counting of time together is supposed to start right over but what about the other five and half years of us pre-marriage? Is it not worthy of being counted anymore? I think not, so this blog is to be dedicated to the birth of my relationship with my husband.

So yeah, 10 years! A decade, 3650 days, over a third of my life- however you want to say it, has been spent with a certain tall, handsome, and super intelligent man by my side. Crazy to think we have been together since I was 19 and could not even legally enter a bar...wow. Even crazier to think, is how little has changed for us. I mean while we are MUCH more responsible these days with mortgages, masters degrees, and a darling child we spawned together, deep down we are still the same "us" we were back then.

We started at a punk rock show. We had met briefly before that night as I had just started waitressing at the TGIFridays he bartended at and he had tried to start a conversation with me once at the service bar. I was waiting for him to make my drinks when he pointed to the sticker on my car and asked "do you really like Tilt or do you just have the sticker?". I rolled my eyes, said thanks for my drinks, and walked away. 


But anyways, back to the punk rock show. So a co-worker of ours had two extra tickets to a sold out NOFX show, one of which he gave to him (the now husband) and the other went to me, the new girl at work with a ton of fat wreck chords "flair" on her suspenders. I still remember how nervous I was that night to go out solo with new people leaving my BFF and safety net of friends at home, but it was NOFX, and it was sold out, and the ticket was free so I went for it.

Once I got to the show and found everyone and chatted it up a bit, I remember doing a double take at the bartender I had blown off a couple weeks prior, outside of the red and white stripes he actually looked pretty good. We got to proper introductions and the token "so do you go to ASU?" and I got to thinking hey this guy ain't too shabby. You see at this time in my life, though only 19, I was looking for a boyfriend and I was VERY particular about what I was looking for. I even had a list:

1. Must be 6 feet or taller.
2. Must be like punk rock music.
3. Must NOT like god.
4. Must be a college graduate or at least pursuing a college degree.


Now finding someone who met all criteria on this list had proved harder than I thought it'd be, I'd find the first three check off's all over the place, but the big one- number four, in the punk scene was next to impossible at that time. But there I was, by chance at a sold out NOFX show, in front of a guy there also by chance, who seemed to meet ALL FOUR of my criteria. I remember enjoying the show while plotting how to get this guy to give me another chance after the service bar incident, gradually inching my body closer and closer to him until I could feel his chest against my back (cause you can get away with that sort of thing at a sold out punk rock show).

There was magic in the air that night. Maybe is was the sweaty obese Indian in front of us bobbing and singing Johnny Appleseed with WAY too much enthusiasm, or the beer spilled down my shirt, or the slight smell of sewage, but everything except the tall guy behind me and the music seemed to disappear that night. As all good things must come to an end, after two encores the house lights eventually came on and our group began to make the inevitible plans to hit up the bar (remember I was only 19). My fairytale night was over and home would head alone, just as I had come. BUT the handsome tall one seemed less interested in following the group to bar once he heard I couldn't go and invited me back to his place for other recreations that don't require one to be 21. I obliged. We talked music and life views and smoked cigarettes and wondered how it was possible we hadn't met until then. He played me Flogging Molly for the first time. It was perfect.

And here we are ten years later, married, with a kid we totally made together! Our favorite dates still consist of punk rock shows (especially NOFX ones for obvious reasons, of which we have about a dozen under our coupled belt to date!). Like I said, before both everything and nothing has changed in our world. I'm lucky enough to still find him just as attractive I did that first night, maybe even more so. I still like to spend time with him and talk with him. He still laughs at my puns. I especially love him when I see him playing Barbies with our Little Sass. 

Cheers!