12, 8, & 2 years ago...

July 17th and 18th are dates I will probably always remember. For very different reasons.

Twelve years ago, on July 17, 1998, I went to the Smashing Pumpkins concert in Minneapolis. The concert was held in the parking lot off Hennepin Ave that is now Block E. I got hit in the head with a glass bottle, got an amazing back eye and 7 stitches. Thankfully the scar is in my eyebrow and for the most part, unnoticeable.

Two years ago, on July 17, 2008, I fell off my bike on Hennepin Ave right by Loring Park. The diagnosis was a closed wound head injury, but thankfully not a concussion. The only two head injuries I've sustained have been on the same day, ten years apart.

Eight years ago, on July 18, 2002, I met a boy to walk around Lake Calhoun. We walked around all night just talking. I knew that night I would marry him. And I did, 6 years later. I told that story at our wedding. We were young when we met and I knew that we wouldn't get married for awhile, but I knew that someday we would.

Sometimes, its fun to think back about how things were. Obviously, the injures aren't as fun to think back on, but my first date with Adam is. I recall when our friends started to notice that we were spending more time together at parties and when the word spread that we went out on a date. A few friends were trying to play match-maker, not realizing that we'd already made the match. My sister tried to set us each up with different people not realizing that we weren't interested on anyone else. As our relationship started, I was getting ready to leave for England. I knew I had 6 weeks to spend with Adam before I left for 4 months. I was only 20.

I think back to the chain of events that had to happen for me to even meet Adam. Starting in 1997. If I had been in a different English class Sophomore year, had I sat in a different seat, I wouldn't have become friends with the boy who worked with the boy who lived with the boy that was in a band with Adam. Yeah, that's a hard one to follow, but it took 3 friends and 5 years for Adam and I to meet. It's one of those things that I wonder about. If all of our friends had not aligned, would we have met at a different time? If we hadn't have met when I was 20, would we have been given a chance later in life, or was that it?

I guess I don't need to know the answer. Everything happened just as it should.