meetiversary

tonight is the australian open men's final starting at the convenient hour of 3:30 am. it would be a match i easily dismissed in favor of sleep if it didn't commemorate a life changing night. last year on this same night in january, at this very hour, amy and i were throwing jackie a birthday party. the party ended with many of us headed to a nearby bar.

we quite nearly didn't go. jackie was liberally intoxicated and definitely beyond the point of caring whether the party continued or ended. many guests had already said their good-byes. and amy and i were looking at each other over the piles of plates, wine glasses, and food and wondering if we should just call it a night so we could clean up properly.

but, there was one in the crowd that was hell bent on the party taking on a new location, so i agreed to be the driver and we all headed to the bar.

on the same night, haley agreed to join a coworker for a drink after work at this same bar. but when she pulled up, there was no parking available. valet full. and she decided 'nevermind.' left the street and started heading home through midtown to decatur.

until she got a text that said, 'i found parking! i'm here! where are you?' damn. she turned around. went back. found a spot. and went in to meet her friend.

and finally, all the near misses and all the shoulder brushings culminated in a single moment. our eyes locked and i knew somehow something big was happening.

i wish i could have captured that moment under a glass globe and let no detail escape me. but, it's been a year and despite the millions of retellings, i know that certain bits are fuzzy already and i ache to relive it.

when i left the bar that night, driving a car full back to jackie's, i felt myself on the verge. i crashed at jackie's house and said to her, before falling asleep, 'i could really see myself falling for that girl..' and she sleepily muttered, 'yeah, i know..'

haley went back to her sister's house to watch the australian open final. she looked me up on facebook and sent me a first, cautious email.

tonight, i'm going to sleep in her arms - er, i mean watch with rapt attention - while federer and murray battle for the title. it's not the date we're calling our anniversary, but a prelude to that: our meetiversary.

or as haley put on the wall calendar in my kitchen: love at first sight-iversary.

d: details crystallized in my memory.
b: i know something big when i see it.
g: celebrating the end of the best year of my life. and the beginning of the next.