Love of My Life

Bowling balls smashed into the pins. Teams, teens, and families either cheered or jeered. I followed my cousins along the dim, smoky viewing galley to the billiard room. There, on the other side of the pool table stood a tall young man with red hair peeking out of his hat and the brightest green eyes I'd ever seen. Those eyes looked up to smile at my cousins and met mine instead.

My heart skipped a couple beats. A slow blush rose from his neck up to his cheeks. My heart fell.

He had to be mine. I knew at that moment what it was to fall head-over-heels.

Sixteen years later and I still feel the skip of a heartbeat whenever I look at him. Every morning I look over at him and my heart falls all over again.

Today he turns 32 and we've grown a lot since that night at the bowling alley. The love I felt for him then pales in comparison to the love of today. Ash is an amazing husband and father, but most importantly in a long-term relationship, he's my best friend and fellow geek.

Geek you say? Oh yeah. He's not a sci-fi geek like me but he's got a bright big GEEK pin stuck on his heart. Besides our joint geeking of Japanese films, Transformers, and Rally Racing, his major geekdom is fishing (hence the cake).

For his birthday I let the kids have free reign to get him special stuff just they picked out. Super Wy got him a fake banana and a screwdriver. Holy Terror got him a rubber mallet. Drama Queen got him a carpenter square. Billy sketched him a fish picture and framed it.

Then the kids and I baked him a chocolate cake with chocolate pudding filling and chocolate icing. Drama Queen decorated it with, of course, Ash's favorite thing...fish.

I cannot believe the luck to find someone so great and to still feel the passionate love after so many years. My only hope is that he and I get many more birthdays together.

Happy birthday baby...love you always and forever!