Celebrating our first date and our wedding - ten and seven years ago today!

So as we now know, I met Evan at the end of August, right before leaving for my annual family trip to Georgia. Once I got back he called, and we set up a date for the following Tuesday evening - September 13, 2005.

I was SO excited and a little bit nervous as I walked over to Rare View where we had planned to meet. A friend had recommended it to him, and it was one of my favorite spots. I arrived late (of course) and rushed around the corner to see him on his phone - I talked smack right from the beginning, joking about how he had lost points by being on his phone when I arrived, and he gave it right back to me, saying how if I hadn't been late he wouldn't have been. We were playful, smiling and giving each other shit right from the very beginning. I liked him instantly.

We went up to the roof, in the shadow of the Empire State and Chrysler buildings, and talked. for. hours. At least three or four, while I drank blood orange cosmos and he had gin and tonics - again, at least three or four. We laughed and the conversation flowed easily, and while I don't remember a single thing we talked about, I know that it was hands down the best date I'd ever had.

Apparently it was Evan's too  - he called his friend Steve - who would eventually be the best man at our wedding - from the bathroom to tell him A) how drunk he was and B) how well it was going. Steve told him not to mess it up.

We shut down the bar - they eventually kicked us out, at which point we had to stand up. Oooooh boy. We were both pretty tipsy, and walked to the elevator singing "Closing Time" together on the way down from the rooftop venue. We held hands and walked back towards my apartment, realizing that we never ate dinner, hence the drinks hitting us so hard. We wandered past my local watering hole, The Overlook, but their kitchen had closed. And we definitely didn't need more to drink.

We got to my apartment and I invited Evan up to get something to eat - we were starving!! We got into my kitchen, I opened the fridge and said, "Ummm, we have apples..." and looked at him, and he said, "I don't care about the apples" and kissed me. Our first kiss, on our first date, ten years ago today.

We never looked back. The best part of how this all happened was that we never played any games. It was obvious that we liked each other immediately so that was that.We were both on Instant Messenger constantly, him in his third year at law school and me while at work, and we started IMing later that day. That afternoon I told him about a Katrina relief concert at MSGthe following week that I had tickets for and invited him to be my date. He said yes, and shortly thereafter  I told him that I didn't want to wait until Tuesday to see him - see, no games! - so we went out that Friday, to the San Gennaro festival in Little Italy, where we drank two bottles of white wine, again got completely drunk together, and I fell 100%, head over heels in love with him.

We moved in together in Hoboken in August '07, got engaged in December of that year, and married on September 13, 2008 - three years to the day from our first date. 

The day was incredible, of course, but our anniversaries celebrating it have always been - well - not the most romantic. This time of year is difficult with the Jewish holidays, and we've had Kol Nidre anniversaries, Rosh Hashana ones like this year, botched dinner plans, gifts that bombed and everything else. But nothing can top our sixth anniversary. Last year found us celebrating at Weill Cornell Medical Center with our newest baby girl, Lila Jane.

What a whirlwind ten - and seven - years - I love you so much, Evan, and am thankful that no matter what has been thrown at us in the past decade, we have approached it with our trademark sarcasm, wit, laughter and love. You are the best best friend a girl could ask for, the most incredibly devoted husband and the sweetest father to our girls. Lerve you...