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| March 8th 1997 And yes, I had to tear this out of a very old scrapbook. |
We stopped at a department store on the way, because of course we didn't come prepared with suitable wedding clothes. And because it was pre-cell phone days, we got lost from each other. So, now we were running really late, which I know is not unusual now, but I hadn't turned into THAT girl yet. I remember running into the church and entering AFTER after the bride, which is never a good thing. But our lateness didn't affect the wedding, and the ceremony carried on, though I'm foggy on the details. What I do remember is the reception, and that is where two Nebraska boys entered our lives.
With a couple of gulps of the champagne fountain, I danced the evening with a boy named Kenny. Really, we danced a lot. I thought I was the DJ's best friend. To be fair, I had met Kenny 5 days earlier at a restaurant. He was the bartender there and I was visiting a friend who also worked there and she told me he was in the wedding party. Small world, that Lincoln. He made me a grasshopper, I drank it, told him it was nice to meet him, and left. Five nights later, we're cuttin' a rug (wow, like my slang). Right by my side, Tina was dancing away with this boy named Mike, who also went to University of Nebraska and the same high school as Kenny and they both ran track together. Again, small world.
After some piano bar singing "Sweet Caroline", the reception was ending, but our night was not. Everyone who drove a distance to go to the wedding, and really, that was everyone, was staying at the same hotel of the reception. While the last guests were leaving the ballroom, Kenny and I were not. Instead, we talked and talked and I laughed, really hard. I had a bad habit of meeting new guys and forcing them to answer hard questions. I did this, all night long. After awhile, we walked the hotel looking for a candy machine, go figure. I recall sitting in front of the exercise room around 3am. I can still see me in my fat glasses (by this time of the night the contacts were safely put away and lasik was still to come), eyes burning, needing to rest. But the excitement of the night and the potential of what "this" could be staved off sleep.
At some point, I did make it to my hotel room for a short nap. I remember finding extra bodies sleeping on the bed and floor. Remember we were poor so saving money often trumped comfort. By morning, late morning, the new day had dawned and Tina and I had a long drive back to our little house in Seward and a lot to talk about. She, about this new boy she'd met who would sweep her off her feet in the weeks to come and who she'd end up marrying in a year. And me about this boy who made me laugh.
It has been through incredible laughter, love and God's grace that we made it through three years of long distance, considerable odds, a 100 degree July, Oklahoma wedding, twelve years of marriage, several job changes, and three wonderful children.
And while we aren't really sappy people who celebrate this day with any fanfare, I thought fifteen years of meeting the person you'd spend the rest of your life with is pretty tantamount and worthy of a post and some embarrassing pictures.
Happy Anniversary Mike and Tina, for fifteen years of so much fun and so many memories. Your own story of 14 years of marriage and 4 beautiful children, is a part of who we are.
And Happy Anniversary Kenny -- I still thank God that you knew how to dance :-)
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| Summer '97 - The Buehring girls and the Nebraska boys |
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