Sunday, January 5, 2014

Those three words

Friday is our 5th wedding anniversary and so I thought that I would tell some Sean and me stories on the blog. Get ready for some sappy blog posts!

Sean and I met at a bar. The first time he told me he loved me was in that same bar two years later. We hadn't been dating for three months yet and I know this because being the planner that he is, Sean didn't want to say those three HUGE words to me before a certain point in our relationship. His rule: We must not say "I love you" until we've been dating for at least 3 months.

Okay, now the story of when I first knew I was in danger of drowning in the love pool:

Ten years ago Sean and I had a slumber party at a friend's house and stayed up all night talking about Ireland. No seriously, we talked about Ireland. And through Ireland we talked about dreams and ambitions, goals, pasts, futures...we just kept talking. I wanted to kiss him but his best friend had a crush on me and so he held my hand and slept on the floor next to the couch. The next day was a freezing cold Sunday in October and we spent it building a patio and shivering profusely. Sean's nose began to run. He had a huge pile of bricks in his arms and I reached over and wiped his nose on my sleeve. His snotty watery nose didn't phase me and that's when I first knew I loved him. I know that's weird and I had no idea then just how much I would grow to love him, but I remember feeling so instantly at home with him. He was someone I trusted with my secrets.

memories
Building patios together in 2004

Fast forward two years later to May of 2006. We had been dating for a little over two months. We spent every possible second together and had never spent a night apart. Pertaining to the way I felt (and still feel), "Love" was an understatement and I was bursting at the seams to say those three special words. Sean was bursting too, but would only let on when he had had too much to drink. On a car ride home from Mystic, he whispered "I can't wait for three months". And we didn't wait.

Sean and Lauren (8)

It seemed unfair. I loved this man and yet I couldn't tell him because of his stupid rule. So I protested. I'd say "I hate your rule" and it really meant "I love you. Ha! I said it!". He'd smile and say, "3 months, Love, no sooner".

But that night at the Eagle, the bar where we first met, he let his guard down. I was on stage singing my traditional La Isla Bonita into the karaoke machine. Let me better set the scene:


This video isn't from the I Love You night, but it was taken at the bar and this was the song I was singing.

So here I was on stage when Sean stood up from our spot at the bar and walked over to me. He stood right in front of me as I sang and yelled, "FUCK IT! I DON'T CARE ABOUT MY STUPID RULE! I LOVE YOU! I LOVE YOU! SEE? I SAID IT! I LOVE YOU!" He was close enough to me for his proclamation to echo into my microphone and the entire bar heard him. Picture yourself at the bar, sitting there watching this man profess his love to his girl for the first time as she sings a Madonna song in Spanish. Now that, my friends, is romance.

Anyone want to share an "I love you story"?