Small Treasure Tuesday: Happy memories

Back in the day, before wedding planning craziness and when T and I first met, we had all the time in the world to go do and see whatever we wanted.  We went on actual “dates” back in those days.  You know, no errands or tasks that needed to be done, we went to places we thought would be interesting and did fun leisurely stuff. Ah, the good old days…not that I’m complaining now, of course, but it was pretty sweet back then.


Anyway, I digress, what I’m trying to tell all of you about is what I consider to be one of our most perfect dates ever. I forget which date this was exactly (fourth, fifth, though I’m sure T could tell you), but we had planned to go to the Indianapolis Indians baseball game that night. It was the last game of the season, so headed downtown a little early to purchase tickets beforehand. We parked and walked a mile in the heat to get there, and when we do, we see the place is crowded beyond belief and wouldn’t you know it, the game was sold out. Yikes. And I’m not the spontaneous type, and really, neither is T, so both of us kind of looked at each other and were thinking “ummm…what do we do now?” We had already paid to park downtown so we might as well use that. I’ll be the first to admit it, too, but I got really grouchy with T for the very first time. It was hot, there were a ton of people swarming around us, we had no idea what to do, and I had to use the ladies room like nobody’s business. But I didn’t want him to see what a gigantic witch I can be during such a mood swing, so I tried to hold it in with no avail. We ended up going to a hotel near the stadium and pretending like we were staying there so I could use the facilities and be a little happier, and after that, we decided to head to the canal downtown and just take a walk.

So, we headed to the canal, and that place was pretty crowded, too. It was the Annual Rib America Festival I told you about on Saturday, so the place was packed, and it smelled of BBQ and ribs. So we held hands and walked and talked and just enjoyed each other’s company. Pretty soon, though, we noticed that a concert was about to start at the Festival, and when we heard who it was going to be, we had to stay and listen. It was the former lead singer of Styx, Dennis DeYoung. Don’t know of him? I’m a gigantic nerd, and I was stoked to hear him sing Mr. Roboto, so we had just had to stay and listen. We didn’t go to the actual festival itself, but rather, we parked ourselves outside the park where everything was going on by the Indiana State Museum and stayed for the entire show. It was awesome. Hearing Mr. Roboto live? Sublime.

But that wasn’t my favorite part of the night. What I loved is that we had nowhere we needed to go, nothing we needed to do, except sit and enjoy the music and talk. That night was one of the first where I really started to open up to T and kind of let him into my world. And it was the first time he ever said I was beautiful. I will never ever forget that. I remember we were talking about how some lady at a party had mistaken me for being pregnant and how that made me feel like absolute crap about myself, and I think I also opened up to him about how in my previous relationship, how out of eight months of dating, not once had I ever been told I was pretty at all.  I started to doubt it myself.  And he looked at me like I was crazy and said “but you’re absolutely beautiful.” It took my breath away, butterflies in the stomach, the whole nine yards. No one had ever looked at me like the way he looked at me or made me feel the way he made me feel. I will never forget that memory and will treasure it forever.

After the concert we headed back towards the car, and by this time the game had let out, and they were doing a fireworks show downtown. So we stopped and watched that together. It was a completely spontaneous and unplanned evening, and it couldn’t have been more perfect. It’s hard to believe that it’s been just two years since that date together, and it’s amazing to see how far we’ve come.

I guess we should try being spontaneous more often, huh?

Go visit Chantel's blog by clicking the link image above and see what other small treasures people are sharing today!