Come Rain or Come Shine

Today Hubby and I are celebrating our 9th wedding anniversary so I’d like to begin today’s post with a little musical dedication.

Come Rain or Come Shine

I'm gonna love you like nobody's loved you come rain or come shine

High as a mountain deep as a river come rain or come shine

I guess when you met me it was just one of those things

But don't ever bet me cause I'm gonna be true if you let me

You're gonna love me like nobody's loved me come rain or come shine

Happy together, unhappy together and won't it be fine?

Days may be cloudy or sunny

We're in or we're out of the money.

But I'll love you always; I'm with you rain or shine

Rain or shine.

Harold Arlen / Johnny Mercer
As performed by Billie Holiday

Here is my version of how we met and fell in love.

I was just 18 when I met my sweetheart. I was in my first year of university and on campus over March Break to work on an assignment. I was the first (and most unlikely) of my friends to meet someone ‘online’.

Now it is important to note that this was before the internet was the internet. Most of you have probably never even heard of IRC. It was like messenger but without any graphics or interface just text. A guy I had dated earlier in the year had showed me how to use it. I had forgotten all about it by March Break.

On the night I met my future Hubby, I was in the computer lab on campus to work on an assignment of some sort. I ran into a guy who I knew through an ex-boyfriend who was in the lab typing away on IRC. I decided I had all March Break to work on my project so I got the guy to show me how to use IRC again before he left.

He showed me how to log on and put me on a channel (chat room) called ‘Canada’. The first thing that scrolled up on the screen was someone named ‘Acadian’ telling someone else that he was living in my city. What a coincidence! I wrote that I lived there too. We quickly discovered that we both went to the same university and that we were both currently on campus.

At this point I started to look around, there was only one other person in the computer lab -a tall handsome blonde boy. What are the chances! I smiled at the blonde guy and he smiled back. I asked which lab he was using and he said he was in the library. Oh well! We talked online for a while before he had to leave to catch a movie with friends and I had to get something done on my project. About an hour later the guy who signed me on earlier was back and convinced me to go back online. What do you know, there was Acadian again. Only this time he was in the same building as I was just on a different floor. Had I been alone I would have left it at that but since I had company I told him which lab I was in and suggested he come up and to join us. Turns out he had ditched his friends to try to find me.

I instantly thought he was not my type. He was really skinny and a little geeky but he was funny and obviously very smart and I thought he was a nice guy. At the end of the night when he offered me a drive home I thought he looks harmless enough and worse case scenario I’m pretty sure I can take him.

The next night I had a date with a beefy gym teacher and it turned out to be a total disaster. The highlights included a Steven Segal movie which he spent shouting at the screen and trying out his “moves” and when I bolted from the theatre at the end and hopped in a cab he tried desperately to convince me to go to his place to “see his dog.” I politely insisted on going home and watched the driver smirk as we drove off. I spent the drive home trying to keep his hands off me and when we arrived at my house I jumped out. He still had not picked up on my not so subtle clues so when he called out “Call me!” I told him not to hold his breath and slammed the door. The driver let out this loud laugh despite himself which probably cost him his tip!

I went in and relayed all the disaster details to my parents and their friends before going to play on the computer. Luckily ‘Acadian’ was back online and invited me to join him and some friends for pizza. Our first date he took me bowling and we had a lot of laughs but I insisted that he was a great guy just not my type. For example the geeky acrylic-geometric patterned sweaters were just not cool. But I had a good time and he was harmless enough.

Before long I was able to see past the acrylic sweaters and collared shirts and realized that he was kind, funny and very, very good to me. So I ditched the sweaers and kept the man. Before I knew what happened I was in love with him! (Sneaky fellow came out of nowhere!)

Four years later we were married. We’ve been through a lot in 9 years - we survived my law degree, his open heart surgery, his lengthy obsession with karaoke and three years of fertility treatments complete with Bambi-Hitler Syndrome. We have been through laugher and tears, sickness and health, richer and poorer (mostly poorer).

I can’t wait to see what the next nine years will bring!