Seven Years

Neil and I unknowingly celebrated our 7^th anniversary of dating. I remember back when we first met in February 2004. I had just been dumped on Valentine’s Day by my old boyfriend. He had come from another school to surprise me for the weekend. I didn't much like the surprise and the whole weekend was awkward. Afterward, I hated him and by default all men. I felt like I wanted to string one around and then break his heart, very similar to what happened to me. It wasn’t nice, but hell hath no fury like me on that day.

So, the Monday after Valentine’s Day, I walked into my anthro class at Luther. I plotted that I would flirt with any guy that sat next to me and crush his heart! Neil walked in, looked around and sat next to me. Usually, I stick to myself and am pretty quiet, but this time, I started up a conversation. He asked how my Valentine’s Day was and I said “It sucked, my boyfriend broke up with me.” Neil looked crushed, as if he couldn’t believe someone would do that. Man, this was going to be too easy.

Little did I know he was sizing up the situation, as well…girl talking to him…cute girl… and now a SINGLE girl.

Seven years later, we are married (almost 3 years!), living in sunny (usually) San Diego and have a 16 pound cat who we like to call Mr. Simon. To celebrate, we camped at Lake Morena County Park. It was a great time to go, the weather was very nice and it was only a little cold overnight. We set up the tent fast and Neil started boiling water with his alcohol stove to make our dinner of dehydrated Mexican Rice with Chicken (not my favorite). I, on the other hand, was tasked with getting the tent ready to go. I blew up both mattresses, stuffed them inside the sleeping bags and that was that. We roasted marshmallows and made s’mores. I drank wine out of a camping cup, Neil drank a big beer. It was a good night. (Oh, and I should mention I no longer feel like breaking his heart.)

We hiked in the morning around the reservoir and then returned to San Diego. We biked down to Balboa Park and walked around the Artist Village. Then we went to the Science Museum and watched “Tornado Alley” and “Hubble” on the Imax screen. “Hubble” made me want to be an astronaut! To close the evening, we went to Wonderful Sushi for dinner, ate way too much, went for a walk and went to bed.


It was a great couple of days and paired with our time back in Minnesota and Iowa for Gary and Vanessa’s wedding, we had a great week, together and with friends!