Lesson 2: You'll Never Know When You'll Meet Him

First things first. I suppose you may want to know how Nathan and I met. It was March 2000. Madison, Wisconsin. I was nineteen. (My favorite age. More later.) He was twenty-two. (Exciting so far.) I had a boyfriend of two-and-a-half years at that time. By then, I had tried to break up with that boyfriend once and somehow he convinced me otherwise. (By the way, the third time was the charm with breaking up with that boyfriend. In June.) Back to March. So the at-the-time-boyfriend and I were invited to go bowling with my friends and their boyfriends, and some of their fraternity brothers (including Nathan).

Now, Time Out! Before you picture some pretty boy in some metro sexual outfit, please realize that Nathan is the antithesis of that image. (More on that later, too).

So, the at-the-time-boyfriend and I went. We met at the frat house. Nathan was sitting on the couch. In between some guys. When introduced, he shook my hand and kind of got up. Very cute. It wasn't love at first sight or anything. However, I maintain there was something different about him. I know he'd be at least a memory in my life. I didn't know if I'd end up doing him. Being his best friend. Frat friend. Turns out I'd marry him.

We went bowling. On the way there, we drove in separate cars. I flashed him from my car. (I wasn't driving!) I had a weird flashing phase. The at-the-time-boyfriend was totally and oddly okay with this. Perhaps a contributing factor in that break-up. So at the bowling alley, we chatted and I discovered:

1.) There was this Lifetime movie based on a small town murder (he testified) in which a character played him (the punk in the back seat of the car). I love Lifetime.

2.) He was in the Navy. In boot camp, they'd put a bunch of them in a room and make them do push-ups until the ceiling sweat. I love uniforms and tough men.

3.) He looked real cute bowling.

Needless to say, the at-the-time-boyfriend and I got into a spiff about my denied, but apparent, flirting.

Fast forward to May 2000. In the middle of the month, I FINALLY bailed on the at-the-time-boyfriend. School (the University of Wisconsin-Madison...Go, Badgers!) was about to end for the year in a couple of weeks. A bunch of my friends met up with a bunch of guys at a campus bar and grill, State Street Brats. (Gotta love Wisconsin, eh?) Nathan's there. At a table. I went up and talked to him, said hi, yata yata. I heard him talking about some girl who was there that kept bugging him. Maybe it was because they did it and she wanted a relationship and he didn't and never called. Out of the kindness of my heart, I budded in. I offered to pretend to be his new girlfriend to get the Bugging Girl to leave him alone. Before you know it, we're in a stall in the men's room. Totally kidding. But we're holding hands and he's asking me to kiss his cheek to make it all look convincing. He asked, "How's the at-the-time-boyfriend?" I said, "We broke up." His jaw dropped, kind of smiled and deeply gasped, "REALLY?!?!?XOXOX6969!" A week later, we met again at Brats. I was a sophomore. So was he (older though, since he did a three year stint in the Navy after high school). I was over-served (my mom's euphemism for bombed). I sat across from him in a booth. He held my hand across the table. So at Brats, we talked and I discovered:

1.) He has three sisters. One older. Two younger.

2.) He planned to become a chiropractor and to attend Palmer Chiropractic College in Davenport, Iowa in a couple of years.

3.) He'd like for me to visit him in Madison that summer to go on a date.

We hooked up that night. I called him about a week later. Had waited for him to call. Never did. A rough-around-the-edges/been-around-the-block co-worker from my summer job convinced ME to make the first move. Turned out well. I went up to Madison again a week or two after that call. We went out to a bar that Friday night. Did it. Yep. Got that out of the way right away. Anyhoo, then on Saturday night, we went on our first official date. Mini-golf, pizza, and more sex. That's right. We had sex BEFORE our first date. And it was worth it and I find it fricking hilarious.

A month later, he accidentally introduced me as his girlfriend to a girl he knew at a bar. When we talked about it later (after we had more late night sex...sorry, Mom), he tried to take it back. The nerve! I gave him some spiel about how I'd be good to him and we'd have a great time and all that crap. He paused, thought, and said, "Yeah, you're my girlfriend." I could feel the fear radiating from his fuzzy bod. We've been Us since June 23, 2000. And it all started with a night at the bowling alley. Who knew?