~Love Stories~ How did you meet the love of your life?FReeper Canteen 1-11-07

[fatima]

~Love Stories~ How did you meet the love of your life?

At Last My Love Has Come Along Dedicated to To My Dear Husband, Peter by Anonymous My husband is currently serving in Iraq, and I dedicate our love story to all the soldiers whose love crosses the world this Valentine's Day. At the end of my first date with a man named Peter, I heard a perfect stranger telling him "he had better marry that girl".

The story goes like this.... I was asked out on during summer break by a man with whom I attended college. I was a nervous woman, but we had a fabulous time together in downtown Houston, Texas. Our night ranged from a Chinese restaurant for dinner, to St. Petes Dancing Marlin for strawberry cheesecake, until we arrived at a jazz cafe named the Red Cat Lounge. Peter had been a perfect gentleman all night, and I let him know I was ready to leave the jazz cafe as the night wore on. He kept stalling and saying that we would leave soon. After our agreed upon thirty minutes, I stood up and told Peter "Let's go". Well, that's when the lead singer of the band looked at me and said "You can't leave yet". At that moment, the lead singer looked at me and said "This is for the woman with the beautiful green eyes" and began playing the song "At Last" by Etta James.

Peter knew that was my favorite song and had apparently secretly requested it be played for me. He had never heard the song before, and did not even know it was a love song until he heard the chorus that night. "At Last My Love Has Come Along, My Lonely Days Are Over, and Life is Like a Song" is the chorus, and little did we both know that night the song actually had come true in the beginning of our love relationship. At the end of the song, the lead singer turned to Peter and said "you better marry that girl".

How pleased would that perfect stranger be to know that "At Last" was the first song that Peter and I danced to as a newlywed couple exactly two years later on May 29, 2005. Since we have married, Peter and I have longed to visit Hawaii to celebrate our love and our marriage. The thought of lying on the beach at night, sipping margaritas while lying in a hammock, while feeling the ocean breeze on our faces is a dream. To walk along the beach at night, explore the lushness and the vegetation, and to experience the mystery of the island would be a priceless experience.

I am planning on surprising my husband with a trip to Hawaii when he returns from his tour in Iraq. After being apart, I can't even envision the joy it would bring to be together in a fantasy land "at last".

I used to work as a probation officer in western Washington State. I had one difficult parolee who kept reoffending. I was forever convincing him to go to the eastern side of the state—out of my jurisdiction. Once there, he'd reoffend and another parole officer would get him to move back west! Finally, this other officer and I decided to meet to discuss the problem. "This other officer" is now my wife. We didn't invite the probationer to the wedding. —Bill O'Connor, Anchorage, Alaska

Late one night I heard someone banging around in the hallway outside my apartment door. It was so loud, I finally got up to investigate. When I opened my door, a man fell into my kitchen—passed-out drunk. I tried to shove him back into the hall, but he was too heavy. Instead, I left him on the floor, went to my bedroom, pushed the dresser in front of my door, and went back to sleep. Not long after, I married the lug.

[Izzy Dunne]

Internet Chatroom, 1996

[fatima]

Ahh,My son too .That was 2 years ago:)

[proudofthesouth]

He was dumped down the road from my house.

Male corgi mix and I named him Scruffy.

[fatima]

That's so cute.Scruffy:)

[buccaneer81]

Match.com. I kid you not.

The second time around was (is) the best.

[Retired Chemist]

Met her at a dinner for employees and their families when we started up a new laboratory facility.

[brooklin]

dunkin donuts

[fatima]

:)Wow it really does work,thanks buccaneer81.

[fatima]

These stories are great,Thanks Retired Chemist.

[chesty_puller]

She was an 18 yr old visiting family in Ca. I saw her in the Mainside NCO club, Camp Pendleton. We married 5 weeks later. Almost 35 years ago.

[Soaring Feather]

[fatima]

:)

[patton]

Walking into the house, he slammed the door. At least thirty people milled around in the living room, laughing and drinking beer. "Crap," he thought, "my brother is having another God damned party! I don't have the time to deal with this."

He maneuvered his way through the crowd, leaving a wake of spilled beer and mutters. He knew nobody would notice any new stains on the tangerine-painted walls. That particular color was his parent's idea of compromise - Mom wanted red, Dad wanted yellow. The result – the sunny side of tangerine It was, at best, putrid.

Jockeying his way to the stairs, he blew off the crowd, intent on spending the rest of that night by himself.

Waiting on the stairs, a surprise.

He turned the corner, to go up the stairs and found more beer swilling teens. Amidst the vertical crowd sat a young girl, quiet as a mouse.

She had brown hair, brown eyes, bangs to her eyebrows with long, straight hair running to her shoulders. Wearing jeans and a white oxford shirt, colored with little stars and stripes. The little stars, a pale blue, were just the color of his eyes.

He stopped, looked into her eyes and his world stopped – then tilted.

For a moment, it was if the party vanished, and fell silent. Who was this girl, this brown eyed beauty? What was she doing in his house? Why did he have this feeling that something was...different? For those few moments, they stared at each other, intrigued, but not uttering a sound. The tension between them was palpable, almost electric.

Years later, he would remember that she was wearing a possessive grin, like a girl with a new piece of jewelry.

There was something here –they both knew it, but neither could put it into words. How do you put this in words? They were both too young, too new, even trying was out of the question. He was 17, she, 15. They were speachless in the moment.

Then that instant, a long skinny instant, was over. The boisterous party bulled its way back into his head again, as he slipped past her and silently up the stairs, finding the solitude of his room.

What would she have done, if I had said to her what I know now?

"You are going to marry me, and we will have three children. Twenty years down the road, we will still be married - but only because you love me."

I love you, my wife.

Merry Christmas.

PS - if you ever cut your hair, I get the Mustang back.

[xcamel]

"Our Balloons Bumped"

...Adirondack Balloon Festival, Fall 1979.

[fatima]

Wow 5 weeks later,now 35 years:)

[fatima]

(((Hugs))))Thank you for our Troops prayer Bestest Girlfriend:)

[mosquewatch.com]

It was a drive by.

My friend and I in his pickup truck drove by, I saw her, told him too stop. 15 years later, she is still the love of my life. The one driving force beside me that has stuck with me in the darkest of times. She makes me complete. She is my heart, She has my heart. I would rather die, than live without Her.

[Soaring Feather]

Thank You, fatima, for the lovely thread.