ROMANTIC RESCUE

Yesterday's "how we met" blog was well received so I will continue the tale of my love story with my wife in today's post.

After a fun and frantic week of daily phone and email contact, Stephanie and I decided to meet for the first time. Honestly, I wasn't that nervous because we had connected so well in the last week that I felt like I already knew her. So it didn't have that blind date nervousness to it. That is one of the advantages of online dating: you get to know the person electronically before meeting them in person.

We decided to meet after work on a Wednesday night. As a smart, single girl Stephanie of course drove her own car so she had a way to escape if necessary. And she insisted we meet in public. That was fine because that is what I had in mind as well. We settled on an ice cream date at a Baskin-Robbins near her home.

I ordered my all time favorite, a chocolate peanut butter milkshake. She made a good impression on me by ordering the same thing. We had a good time drinking our shakes, talking and walking around the outdoor shopping complex. She told me about a horrendous date experience she had previously.

The guy turned out to be a real jerk. After agreeing to meet her at the movie theater he excused himself to use the restroom and then bailed on her. I felt really bad for her. Though we had not planned on going to the movies on our first date, I knew this was my chance to make a romantic impression. I already knew I liked her based on our online and phone interactions. So I offered to take her to the same movie that Wednesday night. I told her I would never be the kind of guy who would leave her stranded. What I really wanted to do for her was take a bad memory and give it a happy ending.

Well, it worked. I talked her into going to the movies with me. We saw the same movie she had planned to see with the jerk, LXG: League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. It was a fun, action-adventure flick and we had a nice time. Plus I got a kiss on the end of our first date for my romantic rescue of a miserable memory.

I was hooked. And so was she. And that was 9 happy years ago this weekend.