Happy Birthday, Ben!

Tomorrow is Ben's birthday. He will be 29. He says he's feeling old because it's the last year of his 20s. Let me take you back to a time when Ben was 16. That's when we first met.

I was a senior in high school. I went to an all-girls school in Pasadena, CA. I had just stopped seeing a guy named Ryan (actually he broke up with me and shattered my heart into a million tiny pieces). As a result I was whoring myself to every good looking guy within my circle of friends. Conveniently, there was an all-boys school down the street from mine. What they say about Catholic school girls was true in my case.

Ben was best friends with Ryan, they both went to public school in Alta Loma, CA. When I dated Ryan my friends became friends with his freinds, but I had never met Ben before. So on New Year's 1992, we all decided to meet up in Pasadena on the rose parade route. You may not know this, but the night before the rose parade is a big ass party scene. Our friend's Dad had an office right on the parade route, so we all partied there the night before. I was introduced to Ben and thought nothing of him. I wanted to distance myself from Ryan and his people. But, 2 of my friends were totally into him. They followed him around all night, trying to get a kiss out of him at midnight. Little did I know, he was chasing me the whole night.

At around 3am, technically January 1st, 1993, I sat next to Ben, who was talking to Ryan and his new girlfriend. Ben was flirting with me but the Absolut vodka in my system completely blinded me to everything. He kept asking me if I wanted to go for a walk. I kept turning him down. But the more I turned him down the cuter he got about it. Finally I gave in & we went up to the top deck of the office building. We just walked around, looked out at the parade route, talked about the people we knew. Finally, we decided to sit at the edge of one of the balconies. Both of our legs dangling over the balcony, he turned, looked at me and kissed me. I knew, that very instant, that there was something different about him. We wound up sitting up there the majority of the night talking. We talked like we had years of catching up to do. We talked until like 6am. Yet this was the first night we had ever met.

2 years later we went away to college together.
1 year after that we moved in together.
4 years after that we got married.
This July we'll be celebrating our 5 year anniversary.

Don't feel old, Ben. We're just getting started!!!!

9 comments:

Christine said...

That is such a sweet story! Awww. Happy birthday Ben! You guys are just getting started - you just got a head start on the rest of us.

Kiddo78 said...

Awww -- that gives me some hope that maybe I'll just happen to meet the right guy sometime. You're lucky!! Happy Birthday to Ben!

Unknown said...

Happy birthday Ben...that is the best story I can tell by how you worded your post how much you love him soooo nice:)And tell him 29 can not be old because that means 30 is old for sure and I can't handle that.

The Unprocessed Project said...

So cute. I love stories like that! Happy birthday Ben!

N.F. said...

You two have an AMAZING story! Thank you for sharing!

:) said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
:) said...

bah..30 is way better than 29..ya get out of that "lame limp bizkit" age group. more respect :)

the bad side effect? now yer in the next bubble..you know..when ya fill out surveys..instead of 20-29, you are in 30-39! :(

Orchid Lover said...

Happy Birthday Ben! that was a wonderful story! Thanks for posting that... I love hearing about people's relationships!

Unknown said...

that is so sweet, i'm so glad you two met.