you know what they say about first impressions....(from the group theme blog)

this is a well known story among friends and family. i'm pretty sure that if you've spoken to me informally at least four times in your life, i've told you this story. in fact, i have told it to congregations in each "introductory talk" i've had to give in church since it happened. i even put in on our wedding invitation (a graphic cd we sent rather than paper ones) for everyone to read to a very lovely song playing in the background for anyone who may have missed it.

i married a wonderful man. he's smart, really funny (sometimes he even means to be), good with kids and helps out around the house. he is practical when i am too frivolous. i am serene where he is agitated. we really do balance each other out. being so well matched as we are, one would think that it was a hit from the start. well, one would be wrong. in fact, one would be WAY WAY WAY off base. we didn't really like each other for a while. he thought i was a witch (or rather a word that rhyme with witch). i thought he was immature and ridiculous. oh, and gay. which is my favorite part of the story.

we met the summer i was subletting a room in a house with some friends. one of the guys who was supposed to move in after the summer moved in a couple weeks early and, one day after i had returned from work, had some friends over and they were making some noise downstairs. being a rather social and curious person, i went down to see what they were up to. to my shock and dismay (i still gasp at the memory...that's sarcasm. but i do roll my eyes), i found brad (the room mate) and a couple of his friends filling super soaker water guns in the kitchen sink. you see, it was rush week, which meant hundreds of sorority girls in white were blanketing the campus. the guys (should i really admit that they were friends or even acquaintances of mine?) were going to drive around and shoot these unsuspecting saps with their water guns. this is where i got the "ridiculous and immature" portion of my impression of my husband. it's amazing that we got together at all. especially when you lump the next part on top of it.

fai was in the bathroom when i happened upon the gun slingers and was returning to the fun as i was chiding them for their night's plans (hence the witch impression from him...i think. i suppose there are many instances where that could have come from....). so brad then introduced him separate from the other two friends, and simply called him "the gay asian". this would not sell me on the fact that he was actually homosexual because...well, they are college guys and tend to razz on each other a lot. but fai did not deny it, as most college guys would do if there weren't, indeed, of that persuasion. helped along by the fact that 1) i was dating someone else at the time so wasn't really concerned with his affiliation enough to dig deeper, and 2) he and one of their other friends tended to act as though they were a couple. it was difficult to tell, really, if they were kidding sometimes or not. they would pretend so often and were always sitting next to each other when i would see them out. what reason did i have to doubt it? TWO YEARS almost went by before i thought that brad may have been joking. and it wasn't because of anything fai did to contradict it, but rather the partner in crime who suddenly had a girl friend. still, fai did wear some questionable colors for a straight dude....so it was even later, when i heard him tell tale of his poor heart being crushed on the basketball court...by "caroline" that i realized that he may be straight.

now, after seven years of marriage and three children, i can say with an almost certainty that he is NOT gay. at least, i don't think so....no, definitely not. although...he still hasn't denied it even when i tell the story over and over. but a gay man would care more about his wardrobe and be less of a pervert. so, yes, i'm sure i've caught myself a good one!