Our Story, Part VII

(Go here for Part VI.)

I’ll try not to bore you with all the petty details of 1993, my first year with Dan. But there are a few points worth mentioning.

After my trip to Israel in March 1993, Dan and I started a little ritual. I bought a notebook in Israel, and decided to use it to write Dan every few days. I would write a note in it, then pass it to him. He'd write me back, then pass it to me. It's been missing in our house for a few years, but I FINALLY found it yesterday, stuffed into a trunk where Dan keeps all the letters I've ever written to him. It's interesting to read and see how insecure I was about Dan's love for me. If I had only known that his love would be one of the few constants in my life, our early years together would have been so much more enjoyable! Hmmm. Anyway, this notebook chronicles our breakups and makeups, poetry we wrote to each other, silly nicknames (Tigerpaw?!), external events, funny comic strips, worries, and the growth of our friendship. On July 25, 1993, I wrote: "You have loved me harder, longer, and sweeter than anyone has in my whole life and I am so grateful for that!" We were so silly in love with each other sometimes and so crazy stupid other times, when we almost messed things up pretty badly.

One of those times can be summed up with one word: lavalier. (I know Dan is groaning as he reads that word.) First, let me explain. A lavalier is a pendant with a sorority or fraternity’s Greek letters on it. Not a big deal. Except that when a guy gives a girl his lavalier, that’s kind of like a pre-pre-engagement. Not as engaged as a diamond ring nor as pre-engaged as a fraternity pin, the lavalier comes before a pin or a ring. It kind of just means that you’re really really going steady. Silly, huh? Seems like it now, 15 years after the MAJOR fights I picked with Dan over the stupid lavalier. We even broke up over it because he wouldn’t give me his stinkin’ lavalier and therefore I assumed that meant he didn’t want to commit and didn’t love me and all that boo-hoo drama.

And then, finally, that October Dan lavaliered me. We were having dinner at Katy Station, a nice restaurant in Columbia. I was thrilled and overjoyed, and I’m sure he was dreading it because of all the stuff frat boys do to each other after they lavalier a girl. Like tying them to a ladder in their underwear, pouring dinner leftovers on them, parading them through Greek Town, then leaving the poor guy on the front lawn of the girlfriend’s sorority house. Luckily, Dan avoided that because he didn’t live at the fraternity house by that point. Phew!My sorority had a candlelighting ceremony where I announced my lavaliering, then I wore that lavalier everywhere. (See it in the photo?) I loved knowing that I was Dan’s and that he was mine.

Check back later for Part VIII of Our Story! And if you start writing your own version of Our Story (like Catrina did), let me know because I'd love to read it!