Ruin My Week
There comes a point in everyone’s life when they fall in love with someone else. Falling in love, in itself, is a beautiful experience. But, how do you know you’re in love with someone? There’s usually a tell-tale moment that you can pinpoint and look back on saying: “Wow, that’s when I truly knew.” To make your heart flutter and your eyes well up with tears, people online have been sharing those “weird” moments that they realized their true love was truly the one. Prepare to say “awwww” for the next 10-15 minutes.
1.
We were coworkers at a bar/restaurant when we met. I was adamant we were just friends and that I didn’t have a crush on her. But one night something crazy happened (I forget exactly what, it’s been several years) and I immediately started doing laps around the place trying to find her to tell her. I can’t find her to save my life. Turns out we were both circling the restaurant looking for the other person.
2.
Without me asking for it, she sent me her pillowcase, because it smelled like her.
To Afghanistan.
It meant more than I can explain.
3.
When I first heard her sing along to the radio, she’s doing it now in the other room and I could listen to it forever.
4.
I was on a date with my now wife and we were looking for this dessert place called The Chocolate. For the life of me, I could not find it even though I’ve been there before. After probably ten minutes, we finally saw the sign and I loosely quoted Aladdin, “Ah, there it is…” in Jafar’s voice and immediately my date said, “That’s it?! That’s the place we’ve been looking for?!” in Iago’s voice.
I just looked at her with cartoon hearts floating around me. It was destiny.
5.
The very first night he and I hung out, we talked nonstop until 7 the next morning. That next day I had to go to work at 10am. I got to work and I had never felt so awake in my life. Almost five years later and I still get that feeling when I’m with him.
6.
We were dating. I had a rough day. She just held me really tight and I started crying, so mad that I couldn’t control my emotions and struggling with clinical depression and upset that having a girlfriend wasn’t enough to “cure” my bouts of depression. She read my mind holding me there, told me, “I know, I know. But it’s OK. I’ll always be here. Fixing it isn’t something I can do. But I can make sure you’re never alone while you fight.”
I loved her then – and some small part of me always will. Not in the same way, 5 years later she left me, but I still love the part of her that defined what love is for me. At least I know what I’m looking for, now. Not a girl who will fix me, but a friend who knows they can’t but is still willing to be there with me while I fight.
7.
We’d been dating for a bit, I tickled her, she elbowed me on reflex, I spit my tooth out, she cried, I cried (for a different reason) we went to the dentist. That was the day. It’s also my favorite story.
8.
For our first date we planned to meet for dinner. The dinner went so well we planned to go somewhere for a drink to continue the evening. We drove separately so I walked her to her car. Before I left to go to my car we confirmed where we were going and then she did a playful touch on my chest and then proceeded to trip over the curb walking away. She’s now my wife.
9.
On our first trip to NYC together, on the front of the ferry coming back into the city.
But actually when I was diagnosed with stomach ulcers and other GI problems, and he left a party to come home with me and take care of me through a crap attack.
10.
When she told me she genuinely thought mermaids were real and that we had a once in a lifetime opportunity to see them at a kids aquarium show and I didn’t immediately dump her.
11.
We both moved into the same coed housing first year university. Neither of us knew anybody else, and there were 6 of us in the house. I was unpacking my stuff and he swung by my room to chat at the exact moment I pull out the head of a dragon figurine that my Godmother made me, body still in the box. Without saying a word, he ran down to his room and grabbed his super glue. When he came back up and fixed it, all I could think was that I’d found my knight in shining armour, protecting his lady and her dragon. I let him touch my boobs a week later.
12.
Watching him build a fort with my two kids, unprompted from me, simply because they asked him to. It was a huge step to begin with to even let him meet them, since their dad is a total prick who left 5 years ago and hasn’t seen them since. That made me apprehensive to let anyone meet them with the possibility of him leaving too and hurting their little hearts any more. He now loves them as much as he loves me and we couldn’t be happier.
13.
The guy was fucking wasted and had a booger hanging from his nose but I still genuinely thought he was adorable and wanted to be close to him.
14.
Maybe 20 years ago so, I was dating this woman and things had gotten serious enough that we were doing Christmas with my family. It was late in the evening, hours after dinner and during that time when everyone sitting around drinking beer/wine and playing cards or something. We were just talking about stuff, stuff in general, and somehow the subject of underground homes came up.
This is where I made a mistake. Everybody knows that when you are in a relationship with someone, especially a new one, you have to be careful not to tell them what you really think. It’s just… known… That you try to present as normal of a face to them as possible and part of that means hiding the things that really interest you. That’s kind of what we’re taught, at least, right? If you don’t do this, then respective meet sees all the weird stuff and will probably nope out of there to find someone less strange. This is one of the reasons why hanging katanas and anime scrolls from the walls of your apartment might be contra indicated, for example.
So I made a mistake, I accidentally told her that I was interested in the idea of maybe someday building an underground home.
Almost immediately I realized this was a problem. I just told this woman that I thought underground houses were interesting and that I could see myself living in one. That’s the kind of thing a crazy person says, that’s not what normal people talk about. Conversation moved on to other subjects and I hoped that she hadn’t really heard me.
The next morning, we got onto the freeway to head back to Los Angeles and we had a 12 to 15 hour drive ahead of us. As we enter the highway, she started talking. “About last night… You mentioned that you were interested in underground houses…”
Shit.
SHIT.
If we were going to have this talk, if we were going to get into an argument and I was going to have to defend myself or figure some way to worm my way out of this without her thinking that I was a total loser, it would have been better if it was near the end of the drive but no, I was trapped in this car for the next eternity and this drive was going to SUCK.
“I was thinking, “she continued, “do you think it might be possible to purchase those steel shipping containers to use as the structure? I don’t know if they are strong enough to hold dirt on top of them, but it seems like it might be worth researching…“
What. WHAT?! Not only was she not judging this idea, she was contributing to it. We spent the next few hours brainstorming and it was one of the best road trips I’ve ever had.
Oh, aftermath… I married the fuck out of that woman. We have a house (above ground, for now), two teenagers, a dog, and an asshole of cats and we love the heck out of each other. Once in a while, we take a look at land prices outside of town or watch for deals and earth moving equipment because one of these days…. One of these days, we’ll start digging. Together.
15.
We had argued before he left for work so I angrily ignored it when he called. Almost immediately after that, his boss called and said he had fallen 32 feet from a ladder and was on the way to the ER. I have never felt anything like the fear I felt then. My whole body went cold and I knew it was because I loved him. I drove so fast that I beat the ambulance. He fractured his spine in three places and gashed both shins down to the bone. My daughter and I spent her 5th birthday by his side in the hospital, and even through the pain meds the only thing he worried about was that he had ruined her birthday, and that’s when I knew we would be a family. We will celebrate our 15th anniversary in April.
