8.25.2007

10 years ago.... (5 days ago)

Things have been busy here... so busy in fact that I missed blogging about a VERY important date. August 20th....


10 years ago (this past Monday) I was in St Louis visiting my parents before school started. I had plans to meet with an old boyfriend that day, so I was up early. and completely nervous. I couldn't eat breakfast at all and I was out the door 45 minutes too soon.


When I was in high school I went to my first prom with my then boyfriend Sterling. It was a very fancy and romantic night. We went to eat at the Ritz Carlton and then went to the the symphony.


August 20th 1997: I am driving towards the Ritz Carlton in Clayton WAY early to meet with my long lost love. It was his idea to meet at the hotel. Neither of us thought it would be a good idea for him to come to the house. I had no idea what I was going to say, or what he was going to look like. I pulled in to the u shaped drive in front of the hotel. I looked around and found some parking to my left. I sat there for a bit trying to figure out how to get where I needed to go when I noticed a green BMW sitting there. It had Texas plates. It was him! He was early too!


I finally find a place to park. By this time he has noticed me. He watches as I park and get out. I am wearing a white summer dress. I had saved and saved to by this dress... JUST for this day. I walk over to his car. I'm chewing gum. He asks me for a piece. My hand is shaking (just a bit). He has the tightest jeans on I have ever seen. Huge belt buckle and boots. Full on Texas style.


We sit in the hotel lobby for a bit. Then it seemed silly. So we went and got some lunch. He ate his french fries with a knife and fork. We decided to go to Colorado. Neither of us had been and we had 10 days to kill.


Since the Spring of 1992 those 10 days were the longest that Sterling and I had EVER spent with one another. The week he had spent with me and my family at Christmas was the second longest. But this time we were grown up. I was 21 he was 19. The oldest we had ever been and it was our first time ON our own. No parents or family gatherings... no school.


On August 21st - one day later- we got back together. I remember the conversation. Sitting in Cripple Creek Co in the little town square on a bench in front of a shop. We talked and talked. "We'll do it right this time" we said to one another. "We won't make the same mistakes" The decision came easily to us and very quick. It seemed natural and right.


It was a great trip... We said that we were going to do it again 10 years later. We didn't realize how impossible that sounded then... maybe in 5 more years...yeah... that sounds good!




me on the back of the infamous BMW up in the moutains of CO

at a hotdog/icecream stand in Hot Springs CO - at the time it was the biggest belt buckle I had ever seen!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Well, if you decide to go in the next three years, you can bring the boys to us (or me if JD is gone) and you guys can enjoy CO. I only live 7 minutes from the border.
What a sweet story!
Martha