What? You mean before the year 2000? Isn’t that just so … last century? Who would want to travel that far back? Isn’t that … like … the olden days?

Um … yeah. It is. ::sigh::

You see … in the year … 1994 …

• Bill Clinton was president (did you know I’ve photographed and talked to him?)
• Dallas won the Superbowl
• There was no World Series
• O.J. Simpson drove in his white van down the freeway on the slowest police chase on record (or something like that)
• For the first time in history, chain bookstores outsold independent stores (and we see where that’s going)
• ER and Friends debuted on NBC (and I still miss them)
• Forrest Gump and Quiz Show both came out in theaters (and I LOVED them both)
• The White House launched a Web page (and most people barely knew what that meant)
• Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, John Candy & Jessica Tandy died
• The Shipping News, by E. Annie Proulx was given a pulitzer prize for fiction
• “I Will Always Love You,” by Whitney Houston was Record of the Year

And I married my high school sweetheart.

Yup … 17 years ago tomorrow, August 13, 1994, I married my man.

It was eleventy-gazillion degrees that day, but I didn’t even care.

It was bright and hot and there were tons of people around me and I was just a baby (I was 20) or so my Dad likes to remind me. I walked down the aisle with the biggest smile on my face. I wasn’t scared. I wasn’t nervous. I was excited. My entire body vibrated excitement — moreso than a Christmas morning or a trip to Disney.

I was, on that day, about to marry my best friend. And I did.

I have the ring to prove it. 😉 I have the pictures (all 60 of them — this was before digital cameras were popular or affordable). I also have a 30 minutes video on a VHS tape (remember those?).

Now I have three kids to show for it. I have a house. I have a cat. I have memories … all with the same man. We’ve been together for 23 years … since I was 14 years old and I’ve never once regretted anything about our relationship, our struggles, our successes …  anything.

Sure, our years don’t come perfect, insulated from problems … not in the least. They were and are, however, overseen by the one above, by God, who blessed our union 17 years ago tomorrow (and who, I believe, put us together in the first place).

So today, I take a look back at me and my man … the man of my dreams … the man of my lifetime … my soulmate. My husband. My love … and I say,

Happy Anniversary.