This past weekend marked the beginning of my seventh year with Joe.  It absolutely doesn’t seem possible that we’ve been together for this long, but we have.  It’s crazy at how fast time goes by.

It seems like  our first date was yesterday.  I remember there was  this week long build up to the big date.  We started chatting Sunday, April 13th in the afternoon.  We are one of those rare stories of a couple who actually met online.  It was very interesting.  Normally, online meets are really just hook-ups.  One never expects it to stick.  Poor Joe, he didn’t know what hit him.  He didn’t even have a chance to escape…

It’s funny to me to think back at how I lost my mind over this first date.  Jeez, it was crazy.  I was in sales at the time– so I was on the road a lot, and  I was able to stop at the mall to get a new outfit or five for the main event.  When Friday finally arrived it just dragged, like it was the never-ending day.  I flew out of the office, went to my buddy’s and got freshened up, and headed out to meet him…

I, as usual arrived early.   I sat at the bar, and waited.  As each person stepped through the curtain into the restaurant, I would turn my head and stare.  Meeting someone from just a random picture on the internet is never easy.  You never know if it was a real picture, a picture from 10 years ago, or what.  FYI–The picture Joe sent me was priceless.  It was from a visit he had made to his friend in Oregon, and he was wearing denim shorts and he just kind of looked like a hot mess.  He was leaning angainst a tree with his arms behind his head.  In a word — Glamourshot! That said— I was able to see beneath that, and have molded him into the fashionista he is today.  The world has me to thank for his embrace of “fancy” jeans!

Finally — Joe walks in!  I new instantly that I was in love.  I can’t explain it.  I just knew that we were meant to be together.  He was the first person that I was absolutely at ease with.  We had a drink or two, an appetizer or two, and went back to his house to “hang” out.  I think this was the Friday before Easter and after a brief stop at Tops, we got to his house.  We walked in and he surprised me with a basket filled with my favorite things…Peanut Butter Eggs and Peeps!

I was alone until I met Joe.  I had been in other relationships, I am really lucky to have a big family, an amazing group of close friends—yet I was alone.   The moment I met him – I knew that I wasn’t alone anymore.  I really knew that I had become a we.

After that first date, we did take it slowish…We saw each other every weekend.  Unlike other ‘Mo’s we didn’t move in with eachother until we hit the two year mark.  We’ve had like two “fights” (and to be fair I wouldn’t call them that — they were resovled in under an hour).  Our life together is the best thing about who we are.  We balance eachother so well.  It is an us and we and so not an I.  When we got Olivia is when we become a real family.  She may only be a dog, but she is our best collaboration.

On the sixth anniversary of the day we met, I’m the happiest I have ever been.  My life is full.  His better be too….