$20

Hubby picked me up at the ASU institute building for our first date. I had known him exactly one week. We had been introduced the Friday before by a mutual friend and had both spent the week rethinking our initial attraction due to two separate cases of mistaken identity (such a long and embarassing story).

I was hoping he would ask me out, but instead he told me about how he was having dinner with his sister and then had to run errands. He had just moved into a house with his best friend Chip. Desperatly not wanting to have to wait another week to talk to him, I told him I could run errands with him. So I guess in a way I invited myself on our first date.

The next few hours that followed included a trip to a consignment store where we saw a homeless man relieving himself on the side of the building, a trip to a bedroom store to buy new sheets, a trip to Target and finally a stop at Thirty-one Flavors for Ice Cream. He spent the entire time trying to tell me a story, but interrupting himself by veering of on tangents. It is still one of my favorite things about him, that he goes of on tangents when we are talking.

Sitting in his car outside of the ice cream shop he finally finished his story. When he told his dad he was going out on a date his dad gave him $20 to use towards the date. We joked that $20 was the limit. Once we had spent the money our dating budget was up and we would have to move on. He tucked the $20 bill into the fuse box of his truck.

11 years later to the day that $20 bill is still on our fridge. We joke about what we will use it on when we are sick of each other. Last night, not even realizing the date, we joked about the $20 again. Sarah McLachlan is coming out with a new CD. I think I will hold on to it for a while longer. There aren't really any new songs on the album anyways.




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