Happy "Us" Day!!

So this one time at band camp.... I know I know I know - Shut up! But seriously, it was the first day of band camp at Middle Tennessee State University. August 1996. My friend and I were sitting on the floor of the band room and doing what girls of the age of 19 do... scope out the new Hot Guys! We had picked out a few drummers already - drummers are always cute no matter what. We had a couple trumpets we deemed worthy. And for some reason, I remember specifically this one particular tuba player with really bushy hair. We both agreed he was cute but he needed a hair cut. So that was that. We had our mental list ~ knowing we'd never act on it since that's just not what we did. LOL! But a couple days later my friends and I were going to eat lunch at the KUC. As we were sitting down, I noticed the cute tuba player with the hair sitting all by himself over in the corner. I sat down with my friends for a while and kept getting this nagging feeling to go talk to him. So, I dug up the courage to get up and I walked over to him. I told him it was unacceptable to eat alone in a college cafeteria and that he needed to come sit with me and my friends. So, he did. There was no love at first sight music or angels singing. Just like a new friend had joined our group. He was quiet and I wasn't. He seemed sweet and polite and not like other guys. He fit in well with our group. And that was kinda it. We became friends. Good friends, really. 

But see, there was another guy who was trying to get my attention at the time and I was trying to decide if I wanted to return that attention or not. So when Billy (by the way, if you haven't figured it out... Billy is the tuba player with the hair) asked for my phone number - I gave it to him. He was sweet enough, I figured. He'd call me at night and since he was so painfully shy, would just sit there and not say a word. At first, I thought he was crazy. I would ask questions and he'd answer but then go dead silent again.... for minutes at a time. We'd sit on the phone for an hour like that. I remember one night hanging up and my roommate saying to me, "I didn't even know you were on the phone; you weren't saying a word!!" LOL!!! It was so funny! (Looking back, our conversations now are not much different. I've learned that sometimes he just likes to be with someone even if he has nothing to say.)

So anyway, we carried on like this for a while. Just hanging out and getting to know each other. The other guy who was trying to get my attention was trying even harder now that Billy had started trying to get my attention as well. I had two guys interested in me at the same time. Never happened before and I have to admit I was loving the attention!! But I didn't know what to do with myself. I knew that Billy was sweet, cute and just super quiet and I knew that the other guy was out-going, hyper and never quiet. Billy says he asked me out three times and I turned him down three times. I do not remember it like that. But he says he'd never been turned down that many times by the same girl and was about to give up. I guess I was just trying to decide which fellow I liked better and couldn't. It was the goofball or the shy guy. I'm pretty sure I already knew, but just didn't know how to move on it.

Well, remember I told you about our band contest we held every year, The Contest of Champions. Well, it was the night after COC (Sunday, October 20th) that I finally made my decision. I was sitting alone in the Music Building on the blue pleather couch trying to read some English short story for a paper on symbolism. I'm sitting here underlining all the phrases that were symbolic. Well, Billy shows up and sits down beside me not saying a word, which is what I was used to at this point. He watches me read for a while and then takes the pencil out of my hand. Not saying a word, he underlines some word. I can't even remember what it was, but then he underlines another word and draws a line between the two. I hate not remembering what it was, but it was so funny we laughed so hard. I mean like snorting when you laugh so funny. And then it turned into a game. He'd underline a word and then I would and back and forth like this for quite some time. After wiping away the tears I'd shed from laughing so hard over the silly phrases we'd made, he leans over and kisses me. He melted my heart right then and there. And that, my friends, is how we became Billy and Becky.

It wasn't hard to decide after that. I remember having to tell the other boy that I was going to be with Billy now and that he and I could always be friends... blah blah blah. He was a good sport about it. And besides, I could never date a trombone player. That's just crazy!

So until we married in July three years later, October 20th was our anniversary. And since we didn't get to do anything on our wedding anniversary this year, we are going to have to celebrate on our "Us" day!! 15 years together. It's hard to believe all the bumps we've hit and all the problems we've managed to get past and still continue to be "Us." He made me laugh and then he kissed me. That's how he won my heart.  

I'm so glad he didn't give up.

 ~ oh and he got a hair cut. =)

One of my all time favorite songs - pretty much sums up how I'm feeling today