DAY 2
I woke up to the sound of rustling palm leaves and the tinkling of the hanging glass shells of the Villa chandeliers clinking against eachother in the breeze…
I opened my eyes and saw the sunlight streaming in through the open wooden shutters illuminating the room. I was tangled up in the sheets, curled up next to Markus…
It took a second to register where I was, I felt like I was still dreaming…
I sat up and looked around with a smile.. We were in Jamaica! Best feeling in the world! I got up and opened the wooden doors to let in some more fresh air…The sun was bright outside, the weather was perfect.
Markus was still sleeping so peacefully, so I crawled back into the big king sized bed and gazed at him while he slept.
I realized at that moment that today was officially our 10 year wedding anniversary.
10 years…
My mind flashed back to the first time I met Markus…it feels like just yesterday....
I was a freshman at college in Florida and it was late at night. There was a party that I had been invited to but I had lost the invitation with the address. Back then I didn’t have a cellphone so I was just wandering through the college campus looking for another person that had the directions to this party. All of my friends were waiting for me in the car. I told them “Don’t worry I’ve got this, just give me a minute. I’ll be right back”
I bumped into someone that assured me his roommate was going to this party and had the direction in their dorm room, so I followed this stranger to his apartment. (hoping that he wasn’t just some creeper that was trying to lure me into his makeshift S & M dungeon)
When I entered the dorm apartment... I laid eyes on Markus for the very first time…
He was sitting in the sofa in the center of a group of laughing college students. His hair was long, wild and down to his shoulders, he was wearing a loose white shirt, khaki shorts and his then trademark birkenstocks. He was gesturing wildly and telling some dramatic story, while everyone around him was in stitches. I have no idea what he was talking about, but just looking at him made me involuntarily smile…He just had this energy about him that made me want to sit down with everyone and hear this story too!
The guy I was that had brought me here realized he had lost my attention and said kind of loudly “My roommate is in another room, Do you want the directions to this party or what?”
At that moment Markus looked up at me and our eyes met. He stopped telling his story. I couldn’t help but stare back. I was in awe of his eyes, green in the outside with a burst of yellow in the center. He was also incredibly handsome..
Markus in college
( An early version of “Blue Steel”)
His friend whispered something to him and Markus’s expression was so intense, that I started wondering if there was something wrong with the way I was dressed or that I had food in my teeth or something…I nervously touched the back of my hair and looked away.
I went into another room for the directions and when I turned around I walked straight into someone’s chest.
It was Markus. He had followed me into the bedroom.
“I’m going to that party too, do you think I might follow your car?”, He asked. (He used to construct interesting sentences like that back in the day)
I stuttered “Yeah… um, sure… come on”.. and we both left the dorm apartment together.
We started walking down the dorm staircase towards the parking lot. I tried to make polite small talk but I was nervous. When he said he was from Germany and I heard his accent, I started talking to him in a very slow voice thinking that his English was perhaps not so good… this made him smile and it’s so embarrassing in retrospect because later on I realized he was very fluent in English.
While I was heading down the stairs, I tripped because I was looking at him instead of where I was going. He quickly reached out and grabbed me. He was holding me up and we were suddenly in this oddly intimate position. Our faces inches away from each other. I felt like I was enjoying that moment more than I should..
He smiled down at me. I thanked him and pulled away.
I had a steady boyfriend and I was already feeling guilty.
Once we reached the party, we both went in separate directions, but I wondered about him afterwards.
3 days later I bumped into Markus at the student rec room. He was playing the piano.
I said “Hey!” and he patted the spot next to me on the piano stool.
“Come. Have a seat”, he said
I was heading somewhere at the time so I hesitated.. I was about to formulate an excuse but then decided I would rather get to know him better. So I mentally erased my previous plans and plopped down next to him.
He started showing me how to play the piano, guiding my fingers over the keys..
We spent the day together. That night we went to Subway and sat there together talking 4 hours after our food was done. Eventually the Subway employee had to ask us awkwardly to leave because they needed to lock up and turn off the lights.
That was the night I found out about his love of Whoopie Goldberg. How could I compare to Whoopie? Clearly I wasn’t his type, plus I had a boyfriend who I knew was probably wondering why I hadn’t called him at all that day…
He walked me to the door of my dorm apartment. We stood out there together for a while. That was when he told me that he wanted us to be friends for the rest of our lives. For the rest of our LIVES? That was a really intense thing to say.
So we shook on it. “Friends forever” and he pulled me in for a hug.
That marked the beginning of a special friendship that stretched over 3 years. We shared everything with each other. Eventually I broke up with my steady boyfriend but I was so close to Markus at that point that I started seeing him as a brother. I decided that we could never be together in a romantic way, because that would be just too weird at this point. He knew everything about me, everything! How do you start dating someone that knows that much?
Markus and I never did date.
It just evolved. One day we kissed, it was the most intense kiss of my life (to this day we argue over who initiated that first kiss, It was him) Our relationship transformed… suddenly we were together but we didn’t put a title on it. I joked that we were bestfriends with benefits. I didn’t want to define it, I just loved what it was because it was unlike any relationship I’d ever had in my entire life.
2 years later he proposed to me. I said “yes” and that marked the beginning of our adventure in life together. We moved to Germany for four years, we lived in New York for 2 years and eventually we drove across the country to start our life anew in San Francisco, California. We’ve had times of complete poverty where we didn’t even know if we’d be able to pay our rent. We had many struggles to overcome but we faced every challenge in life together and he never left my side. When things got really hard, we would rely on humor to get us through. He makes me laugh so hard, every single day.
It was the best 10 years of my entire life. I love him with every fiber of my entire being.
Gazing down at him sleeping that morning I thought of how we had started with nothing, just eachother We experienced period of times in our life where we were eating Ramen noodles and sleeping on blankets on the floor.
Now here we were on our 10 year wedding anniversary in this amazing Honeymoon Villa in Jamaica…it truly was a dream come true. I just felt so lucky…so happy… so blessed.
I reached out to stroke his hair and he woke up with a smile. (He really does wake up every morning smiling and I have no idea how he does this!)
I whispered “Happy Anniversary” He whispered it back…
He made coffee that morning, and brought it out to the patio. He called me over..
I snapped this picture of him sitting on the swinging chair with a big tired happy smile, tousled hair and puffy eyes handing me that first cup of coffee
I love this amazing beautiful man so much. I'm so grateful for all of the years I've been able to spend by his side and I'm looking forward growing very very old with him...
I took the cup of coffee, turned off my camera and sat down beside him on the cushioned swing chair.
We sipped our coffee together and took in the lush surroundings in a quiet state of ultimate contentment, just enjoying that moment together.
Because that really is what life is all about. These times in life when you catch yourself in a moment and you’re just happy. You’re not thinking about tomorrow or yesterday, just enjoying and appreciating the right now.
Where ever you are..
To be continued…
Day at Villa Sur Mer, Anniversary dinner and Booger’s 4/20 bash is up next.
I feel that way about my husband, too, he is such a special man. It is wonderful to be so blessed in life and you wish everyone could have that, too. At least, they should have that perfect person in their lives. We celebrated our 22yr anniversary in March.
Originally Posted by Clarity
