When Sam Met Shari

A better love story than Twilight

On Some Other Social Media Platform that rhymes with “MeWe”, Shari - my amazing an wonderful wife - asked... "Where did you go/what did you do on your first date with your spouse?"

OOOOOOH man.

Navy Ball. I asked someone else entirely, because - frankly - I was afraid if I asked who I wanted to ask, she'd say no.

I got turned down, though.

So since our Gunnery Sergeant made it clear that we were NOT to show up sans date, I had to ask who I really wanted to ask...

We were friends.

I was hoping that was the start of something. I was also worried that if I made that clear, it might be the end of something.

She said yes.

Night of the Ball, I went to pick her up, and she gave me a kiss on the cheek.

In my eyes? A really chaste kiss. A friendly kiss.

In her eyes? A "FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE RECOGNIZE THAT I KISSED YOU!" kiss.

Guys are kind of clueless...

We enjoyed ourselves. It was a wonderful evening, really. It was good to be at the Ball with a friend.

Until the last dance.

"Why Worry Now", by Dire Straits. If you know that song, you know that it is a rather long one.

As it turns out, that was kind of critical.

It took my nearly the entire song to work up the nerve to ask... "Would you mind terribly if I kissed you?"

She didn't.

I did.

We've been married now for nearly 30 years.

I feel like I should write a thank you note to Mark Knopfler, because if he hadn't decided to noodle around on the guitar for a while there in the middle of everything, I might have missed the best thing that ever happened to me.