How it all began...

Before I get to the assignment that Happy Wife gave us in Blogistan 101, I would like to say that I feel like such a lecherous old lady. I am 34 years old and looking at Beloved's photos from his early 20s makes me feel very, very naugthy. ;-)

Ed's mom gave me some graduation pictures of my baby when we were in CT. He's a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. I have to tell you that Ed takes my breath away in these photos.

He is scrumptious. I want to climb into these photographs and go back in time 20 or so years and jump his delicious, gorgeous bones. Ok, let me stop. Before this post gets X-rated!

But honestly though, how freakin' handsome is he in these photos!???? Oh My Lord, I love this man so much. Sometimes I just cannot wrap my mind around the fact that he is with little old ME.


Sooooo, anyway, now that you've perused those, it's time to get to the orders from Happy Wife Happy Life to tell about meeting Belov-Ed.....Yes Ma'am! I'm told that everyone else is to play along too! (Busy Bee Suz, this is just one more thing to add to your to-do list!)

Well, 9/11 threw a wrench in my career plans. I ended up down a professional path I had not even considered before. Going down that path was the best thing that I ever did. It is also quite possibly the worst thing that I have also ever decided to do.

But, since this is a happy post, we'll leave the worst alone and only dwell on the best....which was that I met and fell in love with none other than, yup, you guessed it...Russell Crowe.

Tee hee.

Just kidding! Silly rabbit! Of course it was my Belov-Ed!

Yah, I remember that day like it happened 5 minutes ago. He walked into my office and I got a weird buzzing sensation in my ears.

(Very much like that feeling you get right before you know you're going to faint and/or throw up. Yah. Exactly like that!)

My heart somersaulted into my shoes and my stomach decided to declare its own revolution. My cheeks were so hot because that's what I was. Hot for him. Seriously. I am not even exaggerating.

I know he talked to me about very important office matters. I just had a very, very hard time paying attention. My thoughts went something like this...

"Holy crapola, your eyelashes are so long....velvet brown eyes........perfectly shaped head......you are sooooooo cute.....ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod, WHY couldn't I have worn my cute Banana Republic booty pants today!?....mmmm, what a voice, wonder if you've got a girlfriend?......you probably do.......or maybe you're in between!......what adorable little koala ears.......you're so f*cking hot!.....focus KBL, focus and answer his questions intelligently!.....FOCUS!!!....you're sooooo tall.....ohmygosh, was I just sitting here with my mouth open?....close your mouth girl!......stop fidgeting.....oh, gotta stick my chest out.......suck in my tummy.......stop with the restless leg syndrome already girl!....I hope he doesn't think I have a leg tic.....he's soooooo cute.......look at those hands, now those are real man hands.....I wanna kiss you soooo badly right now.....why oh why am I clearing my throat every time I speak!?.......wonder how old he is?.......am I his type?......he thinks I'm a total nerd........I am a nerd.......I should have curled my hair today.......I want curly hair......wonder if he likes brunettes?........you look delicious in that suit......ohmigod, you are so damned smart, I know you think I'm an airhead......FOCUS!!!!.......I wanna kiss you......like liquid, warm butter.....with brown sugar......soaking my eardrums....that is your voice.........he probably likes blondes, like everyone else in southern Cali..........Oh! Our meeting's over? So soon?........."

Yah, so we met for like 10 minutes and from then on I'd come in to work with such sweet anticipation of seeing his gorgeous face that it was a physical ache. Ed is one of those rare individuals who absolutely loooooves his job, and when he's at work it is ALL WORK and nothin' else. Very diligent. Very organized. Very thorough. Extremely intelligent.

Blogistan, I flirted my AAAAAAAASS off with this man and nothin'. I could not read one single expression or thought of his!!! He did not respond to my flirtatious advances, but for some reason, the shameless flirt that I was, I did not stop. I COULD NOT stop. I was so absolutely in love with his fine, scrumptious self that I couldn't cease and desist. There were times I'd look at myself in the mirror before leaving for work and say to myself,

"Self, stop throwing yourself at that man! Have you no pride, Miss "Ultra Feminist"!? Your mission, SHOULD you choose to accept it, is to totally IGNORE that man if you see him today....I mean it!"

And then, of course, I'd see him in the halls and just lose it all to hell. Sucking in my stomach and standing up straighter, I'd gush, "Hiiii Ed! How is everyyyyything?" He just made my day. It's funny, I remember being sullen when I wouldn't run into him some days, but then immediately perk up when his email popped up in my Inbox.

Of course, it certainly did not help that while he did not flirt back with me, he most certainly made me laugh all the damned time. If you know Ed, you know him to be an ultra-DRY, super-SARCASTIC, and very witty guy. Maybe that was his way of flirting back with me?

Come lunch time everyone in the office went off somewhere, but Ed and I never did so until one Christmas Eve (6 years ago this year) afternoon. It was a Tuesday and we were both stuck working that day. My office phone rang and it was him! He wanted to know if I wanted to get $1 fish tacos at Longboard's at the beach, which always has $1 Taco Tuesdays.

I nearly wet my pants and wanted to yell, "YES! YES! YES! YES! YES!"

But, I probably said something more along the lines of, "Sure, sounds great. You wanna drive or should I?", using my best nonchalant voice. Ya right! (snort-snort)

As I sat across from him at Longboard's, eating the most delicious item I have ever eaten that only cost $1, the realization struck me like a FIST in my lungs. I was in hopelessly love with Ed. I could not stop thinking about it at lunch. This gorgeous hunk of a man in front of me, he was going to be the death of me if I didn't do something about my feelings, and soon!

I swept our dishes off, got up on the table and crawled over to him, grabbed his head, and planted a slobbery, sucky kiss on him. Ok, not really. But, that is what I soooo desperately wanted to do!!! I wanted to kiss him and feel his arms around me so badly that I screamed like a banshee inside my own head. He had no clue of the chaos and madness within me. I wonder if he would have run in fear if he had been given a clue?

From then on it was just a matter of time before I was going to have an absolute love & lust meltdown in the halls of our building somewhere. I'm serious. The Ed craving would have gotten me committed at some point, but thankfully, I realized in the nick of time that maybe, JUST MAYBE, he felt something for me too. Cool, calm, collected Edward actually began to send smoke signals back to me. Hallelujah! He was the highlight of my 2003 summer. He is now the highlight of my life.

Here's the thing about Ed. I like him. Yes, I love him more than my very own breathing life, but more than that, I really like him. It is a pleasure to be in his company. I don't say it to be cliche, but he truly is my favorite person on this earth. When I do anything with him, even the most mundane of tasks, it just a great time for me.

You know, even though I was crazy about him when we met, it wasn't as if I wasn't aware of the challenges we would face. We both adhere to different religious practices, and in the post-9/11 world, the fact that I am Muslim was a bigger issue than it would otherwise would have been. Our politics and social views conflicted. Not to mention the fact that our love for our respective sports teams sometimes landed us in the relationship boxing ring, so to speak.

But, even with all that stuff spinning 'round my brain and the rational part of me kept telling me it was going to be too much to overcome all those differences, I couldn't do it. For once in my life, I was flying in vivid technicolored skies. I was in love like the women in the big Hollywood movies. As I'm writing this I realize it sounds like I might have been on drugs from the 1960s. And I was. That drug was called Edward. I was addicted and I could not, would not, and did not want to deny myself.

He will never let me down. He is my #1 fan in all things KBL. Makes me laugh, but also drives me CRAZY, and then he soothes me. While he's not busy lobbing bags of dog poop at my head, he is the very perfect gentleman. We are so very, very different, and maybe that would make for an imperfect relationship, but I thank Allah every moment I have that we happen to be perfectly imperfect for each other.

It is a humbling thought that in all the women that roam our Earth, he believes that I am the most beautiful. I know that sounds so vain, but it is not. It is such a wonderful feeling. I don't want to feel ashamed for loving that feeling. I feel the same way about him. He can wear a suit like no one's business. He is a total man's man, but when I watch him gently care for Captain Morgan or lovingly pet our pups, I see that warm, vulnerable, special "inside" part of him.

So, that's the story of us. Ed tells me that he wanted to tell me how he felt, but because we worked together he wanted to keep work separate from personal affairs. Like I said, he's all work when actually at work. Now, every Christmas Eve, even if it is not a Tuesday, we still go for fish tacos at Longboard's. This year it will be 6 years since that lunch "date". I'm ready and looking forward to as many more as God wants to bless us with.