From Courtroom to ER to 17 Years and Counting...The Very Beginning

We met in court.  Our first date ended in the ER.

I've shared those tidbits about how Billy and I met, and I've been asked to share "the rest of the story."  I've finally decided tonight is the night. :)

Tonight is day 24 of the Blogathon.  I have blogged 23 days straight. I looked at the clock earlier thinking it must be about 8:30. It was 6:15.  In addition to being day 24 of the Blogathon, it is day 1 of VBS.  I am utterly exhausted.  My brain is mush.  But I have not blogged 23 days straight to wimp out 7 days before the end!

So...although I had several other ideas for posts for tonight, they all involved either a great deal of thought or a great deal of photo editing, neither of which my tired eyes, body, or brain can handle at the moment.  

Our story, however...that I can handle. At least the beginning of it. :)

I was a foster care caseworker for the state. (No, that is not what I ever wanted to be when I grew up, and no, that wasn't what I went to school to do.  So how did I get there?  That's a whole different story, which I may get around to sharing someday. :))

Billy was a child abuse investigator for SCAN. (Nope, not what he wanted to be when he grew up, either!) One of my best friends in the office came in one day and said, "There's a new guy working at SCAN.  He's single and cute and seems really nice."   I  wasn't particularly interested. I was the only young, single, unattached female in the office, and people were constantly trying to fix me up.

But a few days later, as I recall, my friend said, "Guess who's coming to court today?"

We walked into the juvenile courtroom and Billy's supervisor made introductions.  She was in collusion with my friend to get us together. We chatted for a bit in between court cases.  He delivered flowers to my office the next day. :)

Our colluding friends arranged a  group bowling excursion for that Friday night...our first official date.  Billy and I were both on call.  Between us we had something like four phones (bag phones...remember those?  Almost nobody in those days had personal cell phones yet; the bag phones for the on-call workers were a big deal.  No more frantically hunting for a pay phone to answer a page.  I think I knew where to find every pay phone in a decent neighborhood...and some not-so-decent-ones...between Little Rock and Fort Smith.) and three pagers.  Sure enough, right in the middle of bowling..."BEEP. BEEP. {pause}BEEP.BEEP.{pause}BEEP.BEEP.

And as much as I truly hate to do it, that is where I am going to leave you hanging tonight, my friends. My eyelids feel like sandpaper, and my back is screaming for bed.

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(You can now read Part 2 here.)