50 is the new 30

It is you know.  It's my husband's birthday, he turns the big 5-0 today.  He looks better today then when I met him all those years ago.  I can remember the first birthday I celebrated with him, I believe he turned 25 that year.  I was still in college up in Oswego, he was in Freeport, Illinois.  I went to visit him his birthday weekend.  It was almost two months after I met him.  My mom didn't want me to go.  He could be an ax murderer was her rationale.  I didn't know him well enough.  My dad very rarely trumped my mom on anything, but I can still remember him saying, "Ginger, we are letting her go." As a mom now I guess I can understand her anxiety.  I marvel at my dad and him knowing, as he always said, Brad was special.

You know I dreamed of my husband.  I guess I knew I would meet him before I met him.  Before I went on this cruise with my mom and dad back in *gulp* 1989, I had a dream one night.  That I met this dashing guy in a suit on the cruise.  After we romanced the whole cruise ala Love Boat, my favorite show to watch besides Fantasy Island both were on on Saturday night when I was growing up, he showed up at my door in a limo and got out.  Oh in my dream he was like a mafia Don or a Kennedy of some sort.  Some one who exuded raw power, but anyway he came calling for me with a ring and the rest of my dream was history....

I have to say it wasn't EXACTLY like that, but it was sort of.  Okay, we're heading for a dream sequence, please put your tray tables in their upright and locked position....

It was a snowball dance we met at on the cruise.  When the DJ said snowball, you had to find a new partner to dance with.  I was with my new found friend DeeDee when the DJ in the disco said snowball.  I just wanted a beer and to dance.  I heard the bartender telling the guy next to me to "ask the pretty lady next to you to dance" I was hoping to God he meant someone else, still smarting from a very bad break up, the last thing I wanted was a boy in my life.  Alas, it was me, all Brad wanted was a damn Corona, he had a girlfriend, boy was desperate for that beer, because the next thing I knew there was a tap on my shoulder.  

I was all prepared to go Large Marge on him

But then I turned around and saw him.  And let's just say Large Marge didn't happen.

When I looked at him I knew I was done for.  I fell for him, fell hard.  It was like that episode of the Brady Bunch when Bobby kisses the chick with the mumps and he sees all fireworks, and Brad hadn't even kissed me yet!

Long story short we hung out every day, made some really fun friends, went on all sorts of adventures in ports, *cough Senor Frog's* and the next thing you know the 7 days came to an end.  I said goodbye to him, he gave me his work address and phone number.  That's when I knew he had a girlfriend at home.  I mean seriously, I might have been born at night, but not last night right hahaha?

I figured my feelings when I first saw him were based on all of those dreamy Saturday night Love Boat episodes.  He went back to Illinois, I went back to New York.  Done deal.

WRONG!

My dream limo turned out to be a dozen long stemmed red roses.  They got delivered to me after a week of no contact from him.  Apparently he hadn't stopped thinking about me, hadn't stopped talking to his friends about me, and they finally told him to do something about it!  Hence the roses...We spoke the night I got them, he called me.  We've spoken every night since that night *sigh*

When I went out to Illinois for that first birthday celebration with him, we had champagne, we went to dinner, we went dancing.  We told each other we loved each other that weekend.  I told him first actually, he told me the next day, he had this whole special night planned.  When he said it, it was over a champagne toast. Funny, that's how he proposed to me in Niagara Falls, but that is a blog for another day.

I went home, he came to see me in March for my Spring Break, took me to Niagara Falls and he asked me to marry him.  I got every little girls' wish, my prince came in and swooped me up.  I had a fairy tale come to life.

Ok, so maybe it took a little longer than a week like my dream.  It took three months.  Maybe he wasn't mafioso, or some public figure that exuded raw power.  But he was my childhood dream, he was my Love Boat come to life.  And life since my Love Boat has been an awful lot like my Fantasy Island.....

Happy Birthday Brad!!  I LOVE YOU!