I met my wife when I was in the 8th grade. I was listening to the Eagles on my Dad's 8 track player when my sister introduced me to her. I knew right then and there that something was different about her. I didn't know what, but I just knew something was different.
Over the next 10 or so years we never spoke much and barely new each other. One time I came home on leave and met her at a bonfire. We kinda hit it off and started dating. I was just trying to get in her pants and she never gave it up. When my leave was over I went back to California and sorta kept in touch for three of four years. When ever I was home we'd hook up (still not getting anything from her either). It wasn't serious and I'd usually date a few other girls too (generally got farther with them).
One time I came home and something was just different. Maybe we grew up, I don't know, but it was different. We ended up getting serious and about six months later she moved to California. We were broke as can be, but some close friends let us stay with them. One evening I had a "premonition" of her in a wedding dress. I occasionally get these "visions". It's weird, and doesn't happen often, but when I do they almost always come true. Anyway, I asked her to marry me and for some reason she said yes. A week later Saddam invaded Kuwait and a week after that I was in Bahrain for the next seven months.
If you can date a girl and have her still waiting for you after an open ended deployment (meaning you don't know when or if your coming home) then chances are you've got a keeper. Two weeks later we got married at the Justice of the Peace in Santa Anna, California (for money purposes) and that June we came home to Ohio for a church wedding. Yes, she was wearing that exact dress, the exact make up, and hair style.
That was 19.5 years ago. We've had ups, downs, really downs, and some really really bad times, but some how always pull through. You name it, we've gone through it. She's stuck with me through six or seven deployments, moving every two to four years, and all the other joys that come with being married to the Marine Corps. She's my best friend and while we don't always see eye to eye I'd do it all over again in a second.
) Anyways, our friend introduced Tracie to me one day between classes. My wife had, and still has, a great ass and she happened to be wearing her "duct tape" pants that day. (A pair of grey, fake leather pants.) When she turned to walk away, I made the cocky smartass remark to my buddies that: "I'm going to marry that girl someday." The irony with the statement at the time was the fact that she hated me. My best friend at the time used to be best friends with her boyfriend. There was some serious tension between the groups (she and her boyfriend were in band and we were all jocks) so she pretty much hated me and thought I was, in her words, a "total asshole".
