10.958 Days

Thirty years ago today, at this very hour, I sat across from a young waitress I had just met. We were seated at a George Webb's restaurant on 43rd and Loomis, as she ate breakfast after an overnight shift at a different Webb's. I had only coffee. I found her repetitive pick of venue an odd choice at the time, and while she ate and summarized her life for me I was awkwardly quiet, and quite focused on a stain on her front tooth. 

Not exactly the greatest start to a date, in retrospect, but it did a quick 180 within an hour. If you want the details of it, start to finish, you can find them here, in a post I wrote back in 2008.

In a very real sense, that date continues to this day, a narrative thread that as of today spans thirty years, or if you want to get down to the nitty gritty, a whopping 10, 958 days. 

(I work with a few lawyers whose entire lifetimes fit in that span!)

Now I don't, in any way,  dismiss or discount the value of our wedding date 18 months later, but it has never had the same oomph or importance for either of us, even as pro-marriage as we are. October of '96 doesn't happen without February of '95, the kids don't happen without it, nothing happens, for Team Slap, unless February 22nd of 1995 unfolds as it does. 

I'm very proud to have reached this milestone. Not because it's been so difficult to get there - it was but a blink of an eye - but because it brings me happiness, and fulfillment,  to know that I've been blessed with the woman I love, my wife and my best friend, Lisa, for thirty years now.  

Happy Anniversary Sinatra!

Don't you dare mock the glasses. It was the '90's man, you think Lenscrafters stocked 2025 frames back then???