SOC Sunday~Beginnings: The Beginning of Tit Elingtin and Me

It's Stream of Consciousness Sunday, and I'm hooking up with Jana's Thinking Place for a 5-minute free write on the topic of beginnings.

Since I recently celebrated my 10th wedding anniversary with my hubby, co-author and editor Tit Elingtin, I'll share the story of how we met and got engaged. We met on February 27th, 2000, when I was working as the hostess in a restaurant. He came in on a Sunday to sit at the bar, drink a beer and read his mail - he lived in a nearby town, but still received mail at a P.O. box in my city. He came up to the hostess stand, flipped over one of the restaurant's business cards and said, "You're a cute one. Write your phone number down for me." So I did. He left, then came back in and asked me how old I was. I guess I looked younger when I was 22.

We went on our first date that same night, to the movies. There, we had our first kiss.

I told him not to ask me to marry him until we'd been together at least a year - he waited almost that long. One night I went to the bathroom, and when I came out, he was kneeling on the kitchen floor, and he proposed. He happened to be in his underwear at the time - he's one of those guys who'll take off his clothes and sit around in his underwear to watch TV at the end of the day. He had a cubic zirconia ring - he took my brother to the mall to help him pick it out - way too big for my finger. I have tiny hands.

I said yes, and the next week we went shopping for my "real" engagement ring. It's a half carat diamond. We got married on July 13, 2002.