Kristen and I have been going out 13 years. (OK, we’ve been married almost 11 years… but we’re still dating.) I love telling our story because it’s pretty unusual these days.
Kristen and I met when we were almost 19 years old. After a really awkward and unmemorable blind date Kristen and I finally had our first real date in May 1995. It happened spontaneously as I asked Kristen out… thinking she would say something about the weekend… but she said, “Sure, I’m not doing anything right now. Let’s go out.” Since I’ve never been accused of being a plan man, this was perfect for me as I was able to improv a little.
Needless to say we got lost. We jumped on the el and went the wrong way towards O’hare. For entertainment on our long train ride I read Dr. Seuss books to Kristen. While I acted out all the voices and made her giggle with my stupidity we lost track of where we were going. When the blue line ended 25 miles out of the way… I suddenly realized our mistake. The only problem was that I didn’t have enough change to correct the mistake! So, on our first date Kristen learned about my “Live like JFK rule.” (I rarely carry cash and depend on debit cards, even then.)
An hour later we arrived at the airport. Why the airport? Well, I had been convinced that O’hare had an observation deck where we could watch planes taxi and take off. I was wrong. But it didn’t matter. She was sold on my sexiness and Dr. Seuss voices.
A true test of how things were going came from a classic Adam corny joke. As we were wandering around O’hare we rode the escalator up to the 2.5 billion check-in desks. As we were walking through we walked past all the placards that said “International” and “Domestic.” I said, “Did you know that the domestic lines are just for married people?” Kristen said, “Really?” And I was in love.
I can’t get her anymore as she ignores 99% of what I say. But we’re still in love.
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