what's special about today...

anna and i have been together for 6 years today. i thought i would share our story in commemoration :)

we met about 7 years ago, while we were juniors in college (different schools). at the time, i was interning at a gallery. an ex-girlfriend of mine came into town to visit with her current girlfriend, anna. they stopped by the gallery. we chatted a bit and i learned that anna played rugby. i had been interested in rugby for a bit since i had a friend that played it, but i was recovering from arm surgery and had to wait to join.

jump to half a year later. i traveled to a rugby tournament with my friend that played in order to check it out. while i'm watching a game, i see this girl running around on the sidelines. she was wearing shorts and a turquoise sports bra :) it was anna. i went over after the match and re-introduced myself while surreptitiously asking if she was still with monika. they were no longer together, score! :) we hung out a bit during the rest of the day, but she was mostly helping coach her team.

after rugby matches, there is typically a drink-up. anna and i met up again there. i, being the round-about flirt, joked around about finding a girl at the party to make-out with. so anna and i went on the hunt. of course, anna was the one i wanted to kiss :) we got wicked drunk, as you're supposed to do at these parties, and made out. there was all kinds of debauchery: both of us making out with another girl that liked anna, me making anna puke and rally, making out in the port-a-pot (gross i know, but we were drunk). my friend, with whom i had traveled, and i hadn't figured out where we were staying that night. anna invited me to stay in her hotel room, along with 5 of her teammates. i ended up on the floor and didn't sleep a wink (drunk insomnia). i ended up getting up before dawn. anna heard me and got up too.

we decided to go swimming in the hotel pool across the road. we didn't have suits :) so while we skinny-dipped, we chatted and got to actually know each other better. we discovered that we both had the goal of hiking the pacific crest trail. i learned that she was more than a pretty girl running around in a turquoise bra :)

we parted ways later that morning. she was going to university of ID in moscow; i was at eastern WA in spokane. i did join rugby. we were on opposing teams so we got to see each other at games the rest of that fall season. i would occasionally stay the night with her. i was also dating a couple other women at the time and trying to figure a number of things out, so we didn't get serious. that winter, though, i went to visit her, the ex-girlfriend, and another friend. we went to breakfast. this was kind of when i figured out that i liked anna and wanted to see her more than just at rugby games. the other two girls i was dating weren't right for me for numerous reasons. anna and started visiting each other more often. our universities were an hour and a half from each other. that didn't matter :) i made numerous over night trips, barely making it back to school for class the next morning.

on february 8th, 2004, anna asked me to be her girlfriend. aw :) of course i said yes. we fell in love so fast, but it felt right. i joked that i was going to marry her that summer. she got into grad school at UW, and, since i didn't have any set plans, we moved to seattle in the fall.

we proposed to each other the following summer, and got married on august 4th, 2007. anna is the most wonderful woman. i am so lucky to have her as my wife and the mother of our baby girl. i love you honey.