Happy Anniversary, 15 Years of Love…

Originally uploaded by jstueve

My bride wrote about our courting on her blog. She got it right, but let me add some stuff from my perspective (and because if I don’t she’ll cream me).

The first ‘date/meeting’ was at Marakesh (a Morracan restaurant) in Mission Valley, which is a good 20 minute drive from Pacific Beach where I shared an apartment when I wasn’t on the ship. Also PB (as it is affectionately known) was about a 20 minute drive to work in the morning, and muster in the Navy is usually 7:00 AM, which means park by at least 6:00 AM, walk down the pier to the ship, scramble up ten stories of ladders (they don’t put passenger elevators on those things) get dressed, then back down to get the POD (Plan of the Day) from the XO (Executive Officer) at Officer’s Call before greeting my Division for muster. So yeah, I had to leave a bit earlier than I’d have liked. But I fell in love with her that night. Look at that picture over there, her eyes and smile still captivate me, can you blame me?

And I do remember who lost that Superbowl the next day, in those days tradition was the Buffalo Bills would shred the AFC then pitifully lose the Superbowl against the NFC Champion, often it was the Cowboys that had the privileged, but I believe that year the Redskins had the honor.

It is also of note, apart from cruises, trips or business and family we haven’t spent a night apart since that first weekend. There have been up times and down times, times of uproarious laughter and deepest tears. But through it all, my bride has stuck by me, and I’ve tried my best to pamper her in the way a Princess should.

You see, back in the dark days before the internet, we had ‘handles’ on that 32-line BBS. Mine was pretty plain, being the senior Ensign (kinda like being the oldest Freshman) I had the honorary title of ‘Bull Ensign’ so I chose ‘Bull’ as my handle. Angie changed hers about as much as she changes her Facebook photo, but usually it was some concoction of ‘Princess’. We went to a few of the San Diego Connection parties, their Halloween bash was a celebration of Geekiness, and another party we had to leave early because … well… it WAS California, and we’re talking about a lot of geeky singles. I think there was a CSI episode loosely based on a SDC party.

Now we’ve decided to start playing softball in the fall on the co-ed team. Which also brings back some memories of our courting days. I used to play for the ship’s softball team, and drug Angie along to watch, and she met a few of the other girlfriends and wives. One night, I made an error (I know SHOCKING, right?) at second base, and was getting mad at myself, and one of the wives yelled out, ‘Shake it off, Bull!’ but in a really strong Jersey accent. So when you come to a softball game this fall, and I mess up, you’ll probably hear Angie yell that.

Oh… San Diego memories. We can talk about shopping for rings in Horton Plaza. Proposing again for the second time, correctly this time, outside of Sea Port village. Living in her mom’s apartment in the IB (Imperial Beach, home of John from Cincinnati), moving into our cramped studio apartment on G-Street across the street from Sea Port Village, the same weekend we drove to San Leandro to deliver her Mom’s stuff.

Its been quite a ride, baby. Can’t wait for the following 35 years. 🙂