October 22, 2012

Yes, I know, it is still Sunday, October 21.  Since I am trying to write on Sunday's, I wanted to keep that tradition, but this post is about October 22.  27 years ago, roughly in September, I told the love of my life that I loved him for the very first time. I was headed to college (where now my son is at) with my sister and a friend.  I had spent a wonderful summer with the best friend I had ever known.  The night before I left, he spent most of the night preparing a surprize for me to open when I arrived at college.  The next morning he gave me a tin foil wrapped package that was fairly heavy - about the size of a medium hardbacked book.  As I was getting in the car we hugged and said "I love you".  I was so excited to get to open that gift.  As we stopped for the night in Twin Falls, Idaho, I pulled it out and opened it.  It was a giant tootsie roll block with the words "Love, Dan" marked out with tootsie rolls.  I was in LOVE! It was my favorite candy at the time and he had stayed up all night melting down a ton of tootsie rolls to make it. 

We made it to college and the first thing I did was get a bank account and then hook up a phone. That was before cell phones, my friends.  Dan and I spent long periods on the phone and we wrote back and forth at a furious pace.  He said he would come visit me on October 22 - half way between the start of school and Thanksgiving, when I could return home for a visit.  I checked the mail one day before boarding the bus to school and there were 3 letters from him. I was SO excited! I yelled to a friend on the bus - I got three letters from him! A boy asked "what are you doing here then?"  At that point I decided he was right and made preparations to leave school and come back to Washington.  I was really struggling with loneliness at school and other medical issues so it seemed like the right choice.  I returned at the end of September, and by the following July we were married. 

October 22 is a special day we always celebrate - a "first date" sort of day. We laugh when we talk about, how I didn't make it to the halfway point, but how glorious that reunion was when I stepped off that plane!