the begining

I am strolling down memory lane tonight. I want to share my love story. It is extensive as it is 18 years old this August. So i will start at the beginning and just add random stuff.
I was on summer break after my freshman year of college. I was spending the summer at my parents house and they went out of town so I had a group of my high school friends over for a last get together before college started back up. As the night progressed I got a bit bored and one of my nieces came over with a friend and told me about a warehouse party that she heard about or read about. To make things clear I am the youngest of seven kids so my nieces and nephews are closer to my age than my brothers and sisters. Also it was the early 1990's so warehouse parties given by bands were the thing. I wanted to check it out but nobody else but my nieces wanted too. So, I left my party, these were all old friends that I trusted and that knew the do's & don'ts, and we went across town and arrived at a crowded warehouse full of strangers and loud music coming from the stage up front. This was the band's practice space and they happened to be a popular local band. We knew nobody in the crowd but we did not expect too because none of us were 21 yet so we had not seen any local bands or gone to the bars yet. At one point I was standing by myself close to the kegs and noticed the cutest guy walking in with a friend in a big bird stocking cap. The cap caught my attention but not as much as the hot blond guy with him. The hot blond was Paul. We seemed to catch and hold each other's gaze so he walked over to introduce himself. That went something like this..."Hi, I'm Paul. I am in a band maybe you have seen us or heard of us. I haven't seen you out before." "Hi, I'm Keri. This is my first warehouse party and I don't go out that much so I have not seen or heard of your band." "Ok well, can I buy you a beer?" That is how it all began. I did not want to tell him I was not 21 yet. It was obvious he was older than me. He did not ask me my age. It took about four or five dates for me to tell him. Although on our first date we went to a local band bar and I had to say that I did not have ID. It was not an issue. He knew everyone there. The sweet thing about that initial meeting is that one of my nieces had a curfew, she was still in high school, and being the good aunt I needed to get her home for that which was about 20 minutes away from the party. I told Paul I had to do this and told him if he waited here I would come back. He waited. He was in the parking lot when I got back. The party was over and mostly cleared out. I was shocked and happy. I remember taking his hair out of the ponytail he wore and being jealous of his curls and thinking how I had struck gold meeting him. His long blond curly Robert Plant hair did it for me. It still does just thinking about it. Funny enough he had a poster of a young Robert Plant on one of his walls and I used to look at that and at Paul and just smile because I had my rockstar boyfriend. The first time I saw him play on stage to a pretty packed bar I was so proud and in love. Seeing him up there playing guitar was so amazing to me. I used to be mesmerized by his hands & fingers running up and down the frets on the headstock. I never understood how he remembered what note to play until years later. I also used to think how lucky I was that those hands were mine and I still feel that way. Dating a musician and marrying one is a pretty wonderful thing if you can handle them. I loved more than anything seeing him play on stage for people. He was so happy to being doing it. He belonged there and he knew it. I loved being a band girlfriend. It was not all smooth sailing but that is what made it special to me. I would give anything to see him on stage just one more time. To say that we spent a lot of time in bars is an understatement. I adopted the life while going to school, working and supporting myself. It became no big deal to stay out till 4 am have to get up for work at 8am and do homework on Sundays or weekday nights. Lucky for us both I moved into apartments in midtown near him and the bars. It was also near my college. I made it work and had a blast doing it.
That's all for tonight.