The Heart is a Bloom

20 years ago today, on December 31, 2008, the number one song was "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" by Poison. "Rain Man" was the big movie of the year. "The Cosby Show" was the number one TV show.

20 years ago today I was 17, in the middle of my senior year of high school and it was an unforgettable New Year's Eve. Before you imagine the party scene at Wyatt's house in "Weird Science," you should know that my school was a small, highly conservative, private school, so New Year's Eve was pretty low key. Because my school was so small, we teenagers didn't pay much attention to grade level (senior, sophomore, etc.) for sports or social activities.

That New Year's Eve 20 years ago several of us got together at Jason's house to watch a movie (VHS no doubt, as 1988 was the also the year Sony conceded defeat of its Betamax video). The movie was "Full Metal Jacket" kind of an odd pick in hindsight, not sure who picked it, but I didn't pay that much attention to the movie. I ended up sitting on the couch next to Casey Twidwell. Casey was younger than I was but we had known each other for a few years by then, and had been at many group activities together. We were friends and always had fun. Something was different that night though and we stayed right next to each other the whole night. Halfway through the movie most of the kids left to go somewhere, and I can't recall now where they went, but Casey and I stayed put even though I don't think either one of us was watching the movie by then, we were talking and laughing and having a good time being together.

An interesting parallel from that night to something that happened recently was that a severe fog rolled in that night. I can't recall how this part worked out, but I got to drive Casey home. In that thick fog, a driver needed to be cautious and drive pretty slowly. I drove even slower. I got up the courage on that drive home to tell Casey how I felt that evening and that I was interested in being more than just friends. We left it at that when I dropped her off, early in the morning on January 1, 1989. Within days we were talking for hours on the phone and then "going together" and have been together ever since.

Our life together began 20 years ago tonight.