Ten years. A decade. A long time. An era in my life.

This was me exactly ten years ago in Jamaica mon! Gretchen & I had gone on a trip together...the last one alone because after this trip we both got hooked up with our future husbands. So it was Sunday, September 10, 2000. We flew home that day from Montego Bay. I remember seeing Texas Stadium as we circled the airport to land. It was kind of a rough flight and I was not feeling well. We swung by Walgreens and then went to Gretchen's apartment to rest. Aaron and I had talked the day I was leaving for Jamaica and decided to hang out when I got back. No big deal, no date; Gretchen was even supposed to go along. But she didn't feel well and decided to bail. I guess he was thinking that way because he came over on his super cool, green Kawasaki Zephyr and brought along an extra helmet. No way the three of us were fitting on that thing (cause this ain't India) so it was just us two. Let me just say that he was my very first crush in high school. I thought about him several times since then, wondered what he was doing, who he was with if anybody, what his life was like...and it was soooo good to open the door of her apartment and see him standing there. So good! So many things I remember about that day: the bird he found, my toenail polish matching his bike, looking at pictures on my first ever, pretty crappy digital camera, getting gas at the Chevron on Precinct Line and 183 that is no longer there, so many things. Then we went downtown to watch a movie at the Palace. He got sour patch kids and we both had cokes. We were both addicted to cokes. That has changed over the years and now we are addicted to diet coke along with the rest of the white folks in America. After the movie, we got back on his bike, he told me funny stuff about himself and Chris Mitchell riding motorcycles and I will never forget how it felt to be on that bike riding through downtown Fort Worth in the warm September night air. The whole time I had been hanging on to the bar on the back of the bike and before we got on the highway, he explained how I needed to be holding on to him for safety sake. ;) He said even Chris holds on to him when they have been on one bike. So I did and I didn't admit that I had wanted to the whole time.

I noticed he was driving slower than he should have been and was taking the back roads back to Gretchen's. Finally he stopped at a light and asked if I had to get back then or did I want to see his boat instead. No brainer. Boat. I really really really liked this guy for a long time in high school. I looked up to him and he was larger than life to me. The night before I moved to Austin, I was staying at Gretchen and Cody's apartment (they had just gotten married and I hadn't realized until now how short their marriage was) and I had this mini meltdown about moving. Was I doing the right thing? Was this the avenue I was really supposed to be on? Lots of questions. For some reason, thoughts of Aaron Ferrell kept persisting in my mind. Even though I was moving to Austin with my long term boyfriend, I couldn't stop thinking about Aaron. I looked up his number in the phone book (funny) and begged Gretchen to call him and pretend she was me. She told me that if she was going to pretend to be me, why didn't I just call myself? So we called and got no answer and hung up after something like three rings. Of all the people in the whole wide world, I wonder why he was the one I wanted to call before I moved on to another big phase of my life. People take for granted how big a deal it is to move away from everything you have ever known to a new town, new surroundings, unknown things around every corner, new people, new job, having to make new friends, new clients, find new favorites. It's exciting and wonderful but also crazy scary. And before I took that step, he was the tie holding me back. I digress. So because of allll of this, I didn't want to show him any of my cards. I was trying to play it cool which is pretty hard for me to do.

So we went to his boat. He told me that he had just gone out on the lake with his aunt that day. And then later, he scratched the name "Cumulus" off of the back of it. It was the boat's name when he bought it. He said he had never named any of his boats before. He handed me his cd folder and I flipped through, finding so many great cd's that would be fun to listen to but then I saw Kelly Willis and I knew this guy was cool. I was so excited! At the time, nobody knew about her except her following in Austin and a few scattered people who watched her on Austin City Limits. So we listened to Kelly croon some of Bruce's songs while we teetered in the slip on Eagle Mountain Lake. Across the way, at Porky's, people were faintly singing and talking on the balcony and the wind blew the leaves of the nearby cottonwood tree. It was a beautiful night. He told me that his favorite movie was Sandlot and that he was embarrassed about it. I thought it was cute and we watched it while we drifted off to sleep. When I woke up, it was 6 in the morning! I knew that Gretchen was going to kill me. My cell phone had died and she didn't know his number. Also, it was miserably cold in his boat. He had the ac cranked down and I was about to freeze to death. So I woke him up and told him I had to use his phone and I had to go. I called Gretchen and she, of course, was panicked. She said she was up for hours trying to find his mother's number to call and find out where we were. I felt so horrible. Everything worked out ok and she forgave me.

Then he drove me back on his motorcycle and I went home to Austin. There are lots of little fun things I like to remember about that part, but that was a new day and I am only talking about this one today.

Those were some of the happiest days of my life and I hope I never forget them. It has brought back so many feelings just writing this out. It has reminded me of so much and I am grateful. My life was forever changed on that day. There have been some hard times when I know that both of us wanted to give up. But somehow, we both never wanted to give up on the same day and the one who didn't want to give up pulled the other one through. There have been some magical times, too. Lots of beautiful, wonderful days. And I truly believe that those magical times could not have happened if it weren't for both of us together. Nobody else could have done that for me.

Aaron is passionate just like me. He is hardworking and diligent. He is smart and funny. He makes me want to try harder. He has given me so much. Life is more beautiful because of him. Not just for me but for so many people for whom he gives so much of himself. The love I feel from him makes me feel something beyond words and I love him very much.