Now don't get me wrong, I love falling in love, and I love to see people in love. Still, I have to give John a hard time especially since all he has ever talked about since I met him was the fact that he really wanted to be married. Ah the event has finally arrived. And (gag) with a little too much syrup. Now I will do my best to let you all know how I met my significant other.

I began working the grave yard shift at Roche Biomedical Laboratories in a vain attempt to earn enough money to finish my last quarter of school. I met Steve in a diagnostic laboratory among 24 hour urines, serum tubes, blood, and various other biological samples.

I could type fairly well, but I was unprepared for the volume of forms which needed to be entered every night. Thus the night I first met Steve, I was sitting in front of one of those horrible computers, the dreaded IBM. I was muttering a steady string of curses at the foul machine when Steve walked into the room. Not only was I cussing at the machine, but I was in a terrible mood. Sorry guys, no I was not suffering from a case of PMS.

Steve looked at me with a smirk on his face and uttered those wonderful words sure to win any girls heart. "Such language from such a pristine lady..." My reply was something to the effect "You haven't heard anything..." and I shot him a look that would be sure to melt the North Pole. Now the whole time I was thinking "God help me not another dumb jock." He seemed to be amused by my behavior and that won me over even more. Thus ended our very first encounter, and to think he left the room without even asking me my name.

Later on that week, I noticed Steve (by now I knew his name since he was constantly coming into my department and flirting with my friend Patty) sitting in the lounge eating his lunch and reading a hardbound book. Now I was in shock, not in love, shock. Pure and simple, I was so used to working with people who hated to read and hated to think, that when I saw Mr. Jock reading a book I couldn't believe my eyes. My God, I thought a guy who actually read a novel for pleasure! He was reading one of Tom Clancy's novels (for a second time I might add).

I made some wisecrack remark "My we read..." and he closed the book and started talking to me. Now I cannot remember a word of that conversation because I was still in shock. I had not met a guy who would spend his break reading some novel. NOW most of the guys I knew only talked about sports, girls and their cars. (Unless they went to Davis with me, then we were all to busy commiserating.) Sorry - no stars, no bells, no fireworks.

Later I decided that this guy was absolutely nuts. Here he worked all night on Friday, then hopped on a bus which would take him to Oakland to watch an A's game and then he would finally sleep on the bus on the way home. All this to watch a baseball game. Sure he seemed like a nice guy but not boyfriend material.

Well, our lives would never have become involved had he not walked into the room right as I was inviting my friend Patty over for a BB-Q. Now not wanting to be rude, I extended the invitation to Steve. To my suprise, he accepted my offer and so Patty and I drew him a map to my house. (I learned later from his mother that he carried that map with him until he left for my house for fear that he would lose it. )

(Now, for the moment when I fell in like with the guy...) Steve walked into my house wearing a black turtleneck with a shirt over it. Now I think that all men look good in turtlenecks. He was so uncomfortable that he won me over. Thus began the first stirrings of emotion.

We were all kicking back and Steve walked into the kitchen with the map that I had drawn, wrapped around something. Before I knew it, Steve plunked a bottle of wine on the counter and said "Here". Now because he was so cute I began to fall for him a little bit. I stuck my foot in my mouth and asked "Are you old enough to buy alcohol yet?" (He wasn't - he was only 19 at the time and I was 21. His mother gave him the bottle of wine.) So Steve explained that his mother told him not to come over empty handed and told him he could take the bottle of wine with him. I thanked with a very embarrassed grin.

One of my friends Scott was also over for dinner. Now Scott dresses well, and drives a nice car but what Steve didn't know before he arrived for dinner was that Scott is Gay. Steve thought that I was dating Scott and was prepared for just a friendship.

We were watching TV when a preview for the movie The Abyss came on. I said that it looked like it might be a good movie and that I wanted to go and see it. Steve then asked me out on our first date. (Yes, by this time he had figured out that Scott was gay.)

All he said was "I want to see it too, let's go see it." Well being the brilliant soul that I was I thought he was joking. So I asked him if he was serious and he said "yes" so I asked him when and he said "How about next Saturday?" So I said "sure."

Ah, our first date. That night as I walked him to the car, my beloved dog Opus decided that he wanted to go home with Steve. Opus jumped into Steve's car the moment that he opened the door. Apparently the dog knew more about what was going on than the people.

Steve showed up at my house the following week and since all he owned was a clunker car that we referred to as the Urban Assault Vehicle, we decided to take my car (a Toyota). Well I offered to let Steve drive. Steve had never learned to drive a stick so on our first date, I taught him how to drive a stick. He paid for dinner and I insisted on paying for the movie. While in the parking lot of the movie theater I almost got Steve into a fight when I yelled at the guy behind us to hold his horses as Steve stalled for the 10th time. After the movie we came back to my place had some champagne and watched the movie The Blues Brothers and fell in love. Now 2 years later after a short break up, I am moving to Seattle and we hope to get married.

Now isn't that romantic.