20 Years

Twenty years ago today Chuck and I met for the first time. We were introduced through a now-defunct computer dating service called, Comquest. We exchanged letters and phone calls before setting up a lunch date on the next Saturday, 28 January. I did meet one other person through Comquest but didn't pursue a relationship because the first date with Chuck went well enough. I ordered tuna salad for lunch, being that I was a somewhat poor graduate student. Chuck's reply was "How original!" I completely missed the sarcasm in his reply.

Chuck has said that he knew on our first date that I was the one. It took me a bit longer to get there, but after a month, I had a pretty good idea. Perhaps I should have known when, for our third date, he bought us tickets to Gone With the Wind at the Music Box theatre. 

The first summer we were together was a bit of a nightmare.I had commited to going to Israel for two months to work on an archaeological excavation. Those were the longest and hardest two months of my life, or so I thought at the time. It is certainly not something I would recommend to anyone in a new relationship. When I came back to Chicago in August, we moved in together. 

Because he came "Just in Time."