Nostalgia

Today Michael and I drove to Bend. We had to get some paperwork from the court, have Michael sign it and then drop it off to the Sheriff's office. Not very exciting, and it didn't take that long. If it didn't have to be done in Bend, we could have done the whole thing in less than an hour. But, Bend is a 3+ hour drive away, and since we had lunch with a friend too, and got lost once, it took us all day. So, while spending eight hours in the car together, we had a chance to talk.

One of the things I have always loved about Michael is that he is easy to talk to, and that we enjoy sharing thoughts and ideas with one another. When we first met, as friends, we would exchange a couple hundred emails in month. A lot of them were about writing stories, but at least as many were about funny, hard, silly or difficult things that were going on in our lives. When we met for lunch the first time we talked straight through my lunch hour, and I was almost late getting back to work. We were friends for quite a while before we started dating, and we got to know each other pretty well through all of our online and in person conversations.

When we did start officially dating, Michael would oftentimes drive with me when I went to pick up my kids, or take them back to their dad's house. During those drives we talked about our hopes, dreams, heartaches, and even shared a secret or two. There are two main ways back and forth between Bend and Oregon City, and we spent hours driving over them, talking and talking.

Today as we drove, we reminisced about those times. We shared a few things that happened, or we thought about during those times, that we didn't share when they happened. It was fun to remember the first time we kissed, and then share how we each reacted when we were back at out our places that nice. I told him some of my funny "bad date" stories that it didn't seem quite right to share with Michael when he was my boyfriend.

After looking back at that time, and all that has come since, I am so grateful to have met Michael, and that he is now my husband. Not everything was easy then, and there are still hard things now, but we both look back, and feel gratitude, love and no regrets. What a great ride we are still having!!