Thursday, September 23, 2010

Seventeen Years!!

Back in the 80s, when I was in high school...
There was this gas station that I sometimes went to to fuel up my car, and this really cute guy worked there: (I loved the long hair, bad boy type!)
But I was shy and he didn't go to my school and I didn't know him.
A few years later, I was in college and I got to be friends with this girl, M,  and went to her house and saw that she had gone to her Junior Prom with this cute guy.  Her brothers were friends with him.
Jason and M
Over the years, I went to many, many parties with M---it was college, after all!
Then, one night, this guy was at the party.  And we met!  And then I went off with my friends and mingled around or whatever I did, and I was constantly aware of him watching me.  

Now, normally that would have really freaked me out, but with him, for some reason, it didn't bother me.
I would be talking to someone and I would look up, and he would be staring at me.
At the end of the night, he told me that the following weekend, he and his roommate were having a party.  
I made M bring me!
I was very excited!

BUT...he had another girl there.
 Apparently she was just a friend.
 And apparently he asked M if I was seeing anyone and
 apparently she had said I was, which wasn't true, but she saw the other girl following him around and knew I was no longer interested.  (We are still friends with M---she is P's godmother!!)

A few years went by...our paths crossed a few times, but I was dating someone else...then, one day M called me and asked me to hang out and the next thing we knew, Jason was on the other line asking M what she was doing.  I was getting over the other person I had dated, and you know what they say...so I told M to invite Jason over!  And we all hung out... we talk about that day a lot...a commercial for a Slim Whitman album came on TV and neither he nor M knew who that was...but I did and he said he was impressed. lol.  Funny the things you remember!

We hung out with M and other friends a few more times...listened to Pearl Jam...Jason had friends in bands that played guitar for us long into those late summer-early fall nights...

Then, finally, one night Jason got the nerve up, he says, to ask for my number...he called me the next day, which REALLY impressed me!

And, on September 23, 1993 at 7:30pm he picked me up for our very first date!

He took me to dinner at a restaurant that was pretty popular back then (we used to celebrate our first date anniversary there every month, then every year...but it has since closed).  Then we went to a bar and grille that a friend of ours had just bought ("Casey's" for those of you who know us and remember that time!!).  It was raining that night and we laughed about how many times we had hung out, but how nervous we were that night!

Our second date was the following Tuesday...I insisted on paying for his dinner and movie ticket!

Our third date was the following Sunday...we went to New Hope, PA and we went shopping and had lunch...and then when he brought me home, my mom asked him to stay for dinner.  We talk about this all the time, too...he remembers that dinner fondly...my mom made chicken cacciatore (we are Italian) and he had never had it...and he couldn't get enough.  Italian moms love people to eat a lot of their food, and Jason really put it away.  At the end of dinner, my mom asked him if there was any food he didn't like and he said, "Mushrooms and onions."  To which my mom replied, "I'm Italian, almost everything I make has mushrooms and onions in it."  Jason now laughs that he said that because after 17 years, mushrooms and onions are two of his favorite things!

Other dates took place in Manhattan and Philadelphia...at restaurants and night clubs and bars and theaters and museums and art galleries and chic shops and parks...at movie theaters....at the Angelica...at restaurants and eating clubs in Princeton...at parties at friends' homes and rented halls...at parks...we did a lot of hiking...we watched videos...we read to each other...we cooked elaborate meals together even then!

This is so NOT a good picture, but it was taken in the apartment Jason lived in when we first met!
Here is a picture of Jason at one of those crrrrrazy college parties!
Here I am at the beautiful home of one of our really good friends!

17 years
3 houses bought
2 houses sold
2 kids
a few job changes
lots and lots of love and laughter!
I am so glad that he got the nerve to ask for my number!!

We are celebrating tonight with dinner!

Here is a photo of us from "back in the day"!