About six years ago, I was spending a lot of time on the phone with Janie, sometimes up to three hours a night talking about…what? Who talks about anything for three hours a night? What could I possibly have had to say? That’s probably why she fell asleep while I was mustering up the moxie to ask her out on a date for the first time.

I’d never asked anyone out on a date before. I’ve always been pretty shy and, I’ll be honest, a little low on self-esteem which makes for a rockin’ good time, didn’t you know? Somehow, at her prodding, I asked my future wife to go out on a date with me and she readily agreed. Apparently I managed to charm her with my self-loathing.

On February 22, 2002, I picked her up and took her to dinner at Typhoon! in downtown Seattle. I don’t remember much about the date itself, other than that I was wearing jeans and a black sweater and we ate phad thai and had tea. Afterwards we went to Palisade for dessert in the bar. We shared a white chocolate raspberry cake. We then drove to my apartment and spent the night hanging out, talking and, finally, falling asleep side by side. We did not touch, though I wanted so badly to kiss her. The next morning, I drove her home and just before she got out of the car, she leaned in and kissed my forehead.

The next week we had our second date. I remember nothing about it other than hanging out on the couch together when she kissed me on the cheek. I kissed her on the cheek. She kissed me on the cheek. I kissed her on the cheek. She kissed me on the lips. I kissed her on the cheek and later, after I realized I had no reason to believe she’d slap me across the face for leaning in to kiss her on the lips, I did it.

In many respects, it seems like we’ve been together longer than these six years. I can’t imagine a day in my life when she wasn’t a part of it and I wonder what I ever did without her.

I devote a lot of time here to joking about Janie and how she’s on me and never doing what I tell her to and always giving me guff and never taking off her shirt. It’s all true, but in the end, I wouldn’t want anyone else.