our love story: chapter one.

"In springtime Love is carried on the breeze."

 

Spring is here.  A time for buds to sprout, flowers to bloom, color to re-enter the world.

A season of love.  New beginnings and budding romances.

 

I get inspired to write about stories that I want to remember and stories I want to tell our children one day.  It is an everflowing thought on my mind that it is so important to show love and for Quinn to be surrounded by it.  All the love we have for her, and all the love we have for each other.  I make sure that there are pictures of just Todd & I in the house to remind her of this, and we cuddle and kiss and embrace all the time around her.  I figure the most important thing in the world is to show and share love, to love and be loved in return.  I want her to be hugged and squeezed and kissed and cuddled as much as possible.  I want her to be soaked up in it by the time she grows into a young lady.  Love is everything.

 

And so a little post series begins...
Something I've been wanting to record for us for a while.
 

This is the first part of our love story.

 

 

I was twenty-four. 

Finding my true love out there in this world was never far from my mind.

But yet, I was young and still had some more learning about love and relationships to do.

 

I had already determined that meeting someone at work was very unlikely to happen.
so I had thought.

 

I was teaching first grade.

He was teaching middle school P.E.

Two years before our first official date our paths crossed for the first time.

It was Fall.
The start of a new school year.

I was working an after school volleyball game with my friend Jill. 
It was a middle school game, so I was playing with my hair, chatting with Jill, eating some food and maintaining the scorebook for the game.  Somewhere in the middle of the second match I noticed a group of about 12 high school girls had made their way into the bleachers and were watching the game.
Added another sideout and point to the book, and I looked up again. 
Off to the side of this group there was this guy.  I see him quickly, but it took all of two seconds for me to look back again.  He was wearing a t-shirt, white athletic shorts and a baseball cap.  There is something about the color white that I just love on a guy, a white fitted tee, a pair of white board shorts, <enter dreamy sigh here>. 
He was tall, he was athletic and he was hot. 
I remember him sitting so casually on the bleachers, leaning forward, feet up on the seat in front of him, elbows on his knees.  By this time I obviously had been looking a little too long.  I quickly took my eyes down, hoping I didn't miss a play for the book and so it wasn't obvious that I had been staring. 
 

A couple more points go by, a couple more quick glances his way. 
A substitution and this time when I looked up, he was looking back. 
Our eyes met. 

I talked myself out of it at the time, he was all the way across the gym, he could be looking at anything on this side.  But when I looked up a second time, our eyes met again. I knew he either had noticed me or he was on to my quick non-subtle glances. 
At this point I tried hard not to glance over there.  A minute later I did and he wasn't there anymore.
  Nope, he was walking over towards me.  What!?! 
I of course tried to act casual as if I wasn't paying attention, all the while deciding whether to say hi or what to say.

Up close, yes he is in fact tall.  He is in fact very fit, totally an athlete, check that off on my type list.
And then before I could decide what to do he walked right past me with a quick glance my way and then into the locker room. 
My shoulders relax, and at this time I was trying to figure out who this guy was and how did I not know him.  I thought I knew everyone in this school district.  I had determined that he was in fact that group of 12 high school girls coach, and that maybe he knows someone with an office in the locker room. 
He came back out after what seemed like 10 minutes but was really in fact probably only 3. 
I glanced up, he smiled, I smiled back and as he started to walk past me I quickly said "Hi". 
But he just kept walking and didn't acknowledge my "Hi" at all.

Huh.
Well maybe he really hadn't noticed me, or at least not in that way. 

I pulled my attention back to the game. 
Occasionally I would still glance over to the spot in the bleachers he had now returned to.
But I made an effort not to. 
Since I wasn't watching him like a hawk anymore, I didn't notice it when he had returned and had in fact sat down at the scoring table with us.

okay, maybe I'm wrong,
maybe he did notice me,
or maybe he just wants to ask us a question,
or tell me I missed a point because I was clearly not paying close attention.
When I glance over, as casually as I can as though I barely noticed he had joined us, I look up and see these big, warm brown eyes, and in those 2 seconds they are already telling me I am a good guy. I am calm. I am gentle. I am genuine. I am compassionate. I am strong.  I will take care of you always. 

Butterflies in my stomach and flying everywhere.
His eyes were on mine, and then he looked at Jill in a casual I can't be obvious and I need to glance elsewhere type of glance - and this was his tell. 
He had noticed me.

We didn't introduce ourselves, we simply all said hi and he asked us a simple question I am quite sure he already knew the answer to.  Becoming a little more obvious he had been searching for a way to come over here.  We talked about the first match, who won, how many games.  He casually looked at the team rosters on the table and then looked up at the game.
Me: "Do you teach here?" 
Again, he didn't respond and kept his eyes on the game. 
Jill just kind of looks at me. 
Huh.
He then started to push his chair back, looked at us and said "Well, you guys have fun." 
As he stood up he turned his eyes to mine and then he smiled this sweet smile I knew was for me and he started to walk away.
I wanted to talk to him more, I wasn't ready for him to leave just yet.
It was just as he had turned to walk away that I saw something else I hadn't noticed yet.
He was wearing hearing aids.

And I'm left a little baffled.  Well, I now understand why he didn't respond to me, either of my attempts. 
So is he or isn't he interested? 
But, I'm also very curious because he just sat here and talked to us in a way that any person would.  My lack of knowledge and awareness for hearing loss and the deaf community did not help me here, and I was wishing I knew more.  But he just spoke to us, clearly.  He seemed to understand our answers.  I figured he must just have a slight hearing loss.

I glance at him as he appears to be gathering his team to leave the gym.
He glances back.
And before I knew it, he had left.

I still didn't know his name.  I didn't know if he taught here.
I didn't know if I would see him again.

But, I really hoped that I would.