Luckiest

Nine years ago today, I went with a bunch of friends to one of my favorite events (Harpoonfest) at one of my favorite places (Harpoon Brewery in South Boston) and it changed my life. I remember that a year earlier, I jokingly predicted to a friend of mine, "I love it here. I'm totally meeting my husband here." I never really thought it would be true. But it was.

The thing I remember most about that day is how comfortable I felt with E, right off the bat, which was unusual to say the least, and which made me think I must not be romantically interested in him. Yet, I found myself wanting to be around him. Enough so that I dragged a friend of mine along to see him and his friends at a bar (that was in completely the opposite direction we were headed) they were going to after Harpoonfest. Enough so that I thought, "Sure, what the heck?" when he asked me out. And enough that, when he got back in touch after a brief, ahem, hiatus a few months later, my overwhelming feeling was of relief.

I had always wondered how people get to be so comfortable with the people they are in long term relationships with. And then I met E, and it all made sense. Everything sort of fell into place. Sure, we had our missteps (the aforementioned hiatus among them), but overall, there was a sense of comfort and of easy communication, that wasn't like anything I had experienced before. He once told me he would do whatever it took to gain and keep my trust, and he has spent the days and years since doing exactly that. I can be my total freak show of a self with him and he doesn't bat an eye.

When it came time, in those early days, to have the conversations I'd found excruciatingly difficult to have in other relationships, I found that we could discuss serious matters rationally and respectfully and come to conclusions together. We were a team. And that was amazing. It still is.

Happy Birthday to the love of my life. Thank you for everything. And shouts out to Harpoon Brewery and our friend Jacki for the assists. :-)