I found True Love in a Tuba case or… True Love found me in a tuba case.

No!  Really.  It’s true.

My freshman year, band hall, early 1980′s….freshman initiations.  Some highly evolved neanderthals decided I was the perfect fit for a Tuba case.  They apparently held a round table discussion, went over some statistics, and pulled in a pie chart.  They then adjourned to the band hall where they grabbed me and stuffed me inside.  They shut the lid and perched on top.  They were so proud of themselves.

Enter stage left (or stage right…I couldn’t see a thing) my knight in shining armor.  He removed the pelicans, opened the lid, and gave me his hand.   I saw stars, my heart was all a -flutter, and I felt like I was floating on clouds. That overwhelmingly incredible, intangible force of nature…………..OXYGEN DEPRIVATION!!! No holes in the case and I was in there, what seemed like forever.

But truly…. I fell in love. Right then and there; all of fourteen years old.

We “dated” for awhile. I wasn’t allowed to date until I was sixteen…((sucked)).   I stuffed his locker with little slips of paper that said, “I love you.” Then stood back and watched the avalanche. I was a bit pesky in my attempts sometimes. We drifted apart… dated others… got back together… drifted again all through high school.  Any time he came up to me and asked me to go somewhere or do something with him I was all “SURE!  or “What boyfriend?” and “As you wish”.  I was pretty much a Wesley personality (Princess Bride reference).

The summer after my senior year he came by and asked me out on a date. YES, as always,  was my answer. He was leaving college to join the marines and I was leaving for college. It was a wonderful, fantastic, and meaningful date. That one last special moment before we parted with promises to stay in touch.  He went off to Guam, traveled the world, and sowed his wild oats. I went off to college and made many new awesome friends, had some wonderful experiences and we both moved on and apart.   So…

…TWENTY TWO YEARS LATER…

Mark Zukerberg created Facebook! (choir of angels sing).  An old college friend of mine found me and turned me on to the wonderful world of social networking  Facebook.  I tried it and found tons of old friends from high school and college.  I later “unfriended” quite a few of them; realizing why I had lost touch with them in the first place. <<delete>>  Guess who I did find though? YEP! My hero from 1982. I felt a little of that oxygen deprivation again–weird. We talked, we chatted, we reminisced  then we finally met. Strangely enough, we still hold many of the same ideals as we did in high school.

• Star Wars rocks. (originally three) And yes, Han Solo shot first.
• Monty Python’s “Dead Parrot Sketch” is timeless.
• Musicals are awesome. From Oklahoma to Music Man.
• Blazing Saddles Camp fire fart scene keeps getting funnier and funnier.
• Dead Puppies are a “drag to take for a walk.” They are!!  Dr. Demento said so himself.

We dated for almost a year before running off to Galveston, Texas for a beautiful Zen-Tao wedding on the beach at sunrise. It was more like 8:30 -ish a.m. because I really don’t do mornings… not well anyway. Then jumped on the first boat to Cozumel for our honeymoon. Next time we go, we promised ourselves that we would actually be social… do things outside the room and maybe talk to a passenger or two.  Next time!!

He is my Peter Griffin (but with a much higher IQ) and I am his Lois. He tickles me and I hit him with a frying pan. I love him and he loves me. We laugh, we live and we love each other in spite of it all… and we know so much embarrassing crap about each other from high school…. it keeps us honest.