I Remember It Like It Was Yesterday...

I originally wanted to start blogging for one reason only. Doug Dimberg. I really wanted to make sure that before I left this earth, I put into words exactly what I remember from that night.

Today I was driving home from work and another thing crossed my mind, "I can remember the exact moment I met, and fell in love with my wife". It suddenly occurred to me that it was extremely important that I never forget that moment, and even more important that I simply write it down, if for no other reason than one day, many years from now, someone may be interested in the day their parents (or grandparents) met and fell in love.

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Coastal was a small school back then. It was just gaining its independence from the University of South Carolina system. In fact, my graduating class had the option of choosing either a degree that said, "University of South Carolina" or "Coastal Carolina University". Naturally I chose the latter. I only say, "naturally" because I was never at any time caught up in which school you attended, and in fact, I valued the science education I received at a small school. To this day I meet people from larger schools that are amazed that I was able to take a class in Recombinant DNA Technology in the early 90s because at a larger school (at the time) such a class would've simply been cost prohibitive.

So anyway, small school...

I enjoyed attending a small school. It was great knowing a lot of people, and with all the sciences housed in one building, I was very close with friends who were Ecology majors, Chemistry majors and of course, Marine Science majors. I took a lot of Marine Science courses as electives, and anything with Marine Science that had labs was a guaranteed blast. I still have fond memories of taking boats out into the open ocean for Marine Science lab and thinking, "who gets to do this for college credit?"

One of the great things about a small school is exactly that. It's small. You have a tight circle of friends, and you see a lot of the same faces over and over.

So of course I knew Tammy. Everyone knew Tammy.

Five words, "Way. Out. Of. My. League."

She was hands down one of the most beautiful women at Coastal (and she was a Marine Science major...beautiful AND smart!). I knew who she was, but I never thought she'd ever talk to me. I was a pot-smoking nerd. I had a computer and I spent the previous summer following the Grateful Dead around. I wrote programs at night... Shit, I had a modem and a comic book collection.

But that day... I remember that day like it was yesterday. I can still close my eyes and see her sitting at the table in the student center. She was sitting with her Sorority Sisters (Tammy was Social Chair... naturally), one of which was in my Microbiology class. It was before class and I was killing time, so I sat down to talk to Lisa.

We met. We talked. I made her laugh.

A little while later, in class, I found out from Lisa that she asked about me after I left, "Really?"

That was all it took.

We started dating, it was my last semester in college, and the highlight was her Sorority's formal.

Because that was when I told her I loved her.

And I never stopped.