By the Zeppa Center

In college I was walking to the practice field (I was in the marching band) when I walked by a new freshman girl. She was cute, so I said hello to her. She respond with a "Hi" back, but with this really cute southern twang that made "Hi" a two syllable word.

That made her even cuter.

A few days later, I twisted my ankle playing wallyball, and had to sit on the sidelines during marching band practice for a couple of weeks. She and a couple of her friends started talking with me during water breaks. One day I asked her if she was going to a recital at the music building that evening. She said that she might, and later that night she did show up and we ended up sitting next to each other.

While a group of us were talking and waiting for the recital to start, she mentioned that she was taking trigonometry. I volunteered to tutor her if she needed any help. (From purely selflless, motives, I assure you.) She looked at me very strangely. I later came to find out that she was shocked that I thought I could tutor her in a math subject. To her I just looked like a big dumb jock.

Anyway, the tutoring began, and after a few weeks, she invited me to go to the Texas State Fair with her and some friends. I agreed, but then asked if she would meet me by the lake at the Zeppa Center (our college rec building - which has now been demolished and replaced) to talk a little bit.

We did, and the conversation was a pretty long one, but basically went like this:

Me: I was in a long relationship, and I'm not really interested in dating just to date. I really plan on marrying the next person I date. If that's not where you are right now (being just 18 and all), I totally understand. But if you want, we can still go to the fair, but just go as friends.

Pause...

Her: Let's be friends.

So that's what we did.



Fast forward a bit...



November 20th will be our 15th wedding anniversary.

I'd say overall that the day by the Zeppa Center turned out to be a good day.