I Hope We Always Laugh Like This

Two week ago today, I married the love of my life.

It took me far too long to find him, as far as I’m concerned. I was 33.

I always say (and this was part of what I said to him in my wedding vows)… that I wish we had met sooner so that we could have more time together. But if we had, I know I wouldn’t be able to appreciate what I have. And what I have is a good man… who is kind, funny, strong, gentle, loving, smart, and who I have so much fun with.

When we met, almost 4 years ago, I had almost given up on love. How many love stories start out that way? You hear that quite often, don’t you? “They” do say that it happens when you’re not looking. That was definitely the case with me.

I had been out of a long term relationship for over a year, and was freshly out of my “transition” or “rebound” relationship. Which, at the time, I didn’t realize was my rebound and though it caused me a lot of pain for such a short romance, I’m glad it happened.

I was single and not too happy about it, but was ready to just be alone for a while. I went to my friend Rachel’s house for a New Year’s Eve party and someone was talking about MySpace. At the time, I had no idea what it was so they explained it to me.

A couple days later, I was online and decided to check it out. After setting up my page and exploring it for a while, I did a “search” in my area to see what kind of guys were on it. Bob caught my eye right away and I clicked on his picture. Totally cute, friendly looking dude. THEN I saw his photo albums.

He had posted pictures from his trip to see The Dave Matthews Band at the Gorge in Washington. If you’re a DMB fan, this is the ultimate trip to see them perform. They usually do three shows over a weekend and the setting is beautiful. I realized I had a real fan on my hands.

So. I sent him a message about how cool it must have been to see them at the Gorge. And the rest, as they say, is history. We just immediately clicked – obviously bonding over DMB, but realizing that something pretty special was happening. We pretty quickly moved to phone calls and just a few short weeks later, we met in person.

He will tell you that he knew he loved me before we even met… and I love hearing that. For me, it took a little longer, since I was a little “wounded”. Trust didn’t really come very easily for me at that point. I found myself very attracted to him, but I was definitely skittish.

The thing that was key for me was his consistency. He did what he said he was going to do, when he said he was going to do it. His feelings didn’t change from one day to the next. His patience was unbelievable. He just said “listen, you’re it for me… and I can be as patient as you need me to be”.

Beyond that, this is someone who just gets me - there isn’t a lot of explaining that needs to be done. We have so much fun together, we enjoy lots of the same things, we see life so much the same way and I feel so free and safe with him. And we laugh… so much. Sometimes, all we have to do is say one word or look at each other a certain way and we’re laughing so hard we can’t catch our breath and we’re wiping our eyes because they’re tearing up. I said to him just the other night “I hope we always laugh like this”.

“They” also say that opposites attract and while I’m sure that’s true… for the long term, I really feel that it’s important to be with someone you connect with on a deep level.

Over the time that we’ve been together, we’ve traveled quite a bit and experienced a lot. None of it compared to our “WeddingMoon” in Aruba. It wasn’t the setting, though it was beautiful. It was that we were finally there, making that commitment to each other. There were moments, even beyond the actual ceremony, that will stay with me forever.

I love this man, so much. He’s hilarious and he’s enthusiastic. He’s smart and creative. He asks about my day. He protects me and he adores me. He supports me and he encourages me. He’s the love of my life, and now... he's my husband.