Wednesday, May 6, 2009

4 year anniversary

Today is the 4th anniversary of my first date with Jacob R. Joseph. Jake remembered this while we were taking him to work this morning, and Garrison Keillor came on with the Writer's Almanac. So we had our own little "Today is the anniversary of Jake and Erin's very first official date..." I am sure that Garrison would have a lovely way of expressing all of the very perfect things that happened.The week before our date, I had been on a girls trip to Florida with my sister who I think was living in Chicago at the time, and our good friend Angela Dodge of Independence, Iowa. Back up the day before my trip, Jake posted a haiku on the board at work. He claimed that this haiku was for an assignment in class:
Sora no tori
Fugu Minami yuko
Kueri Matsu.

Birds in the sky.
Flying South for winter
I await your return.

I thought it was so beautiful, but I didn't get it...at the time. We sent text messages, and I had switched phone plans before leaving so that I could receive and send texts. He called me while I was in Florida and asked me to go to Takinami. I was pretty sure that this was an official date that would not include any co-workers.

I wore a red boat neck shirt with fine red and white pin striping, and 3/4 length sleeves with khaki Capri pants and black wedge sandals. He came to my condo and picked me up in his Jaguar. He made an official reservation, and I knew that his sister would be our server. Trisha and I had met at Jake's birthday hangout a couple of weeks earlier, but I could tell that she was all business and knew that this was an official date. He asked for the very special table that was in the quietest part of the restaurant with the best view of the aquarium.

I had tried sushi with my dad once, and I only ate a piece of shrimp that time! Jake knew the sushi menu like the back of his hand. He ordered everything for me! He picked out a soup starter, then two sushi rolls with a glass of white wine, and then the Kobe beef entree with a glass of red wine. We had an amazing dessert to finish and I was totally whisked away. I had always wanted someone who knew food good enough to tell me what to eat, as well as perfect wine pairings. I was on a very grown-up date. As a working girl, on a date with a college guy, I wanted to help with the bill. He insisted that he wanted to pay for everything, but I knew that he didn't work full time and that we were at a very expensive restaurant. I can't remember if I said, "That is probably your entire paycheck," but I do remember he said, "You are worth it. You are worth every penny of it." I had never had anyone tell me that I was worth it! He got me with his sincerity, hook, line and sinker.

We left on a cloud and went to Dirty John's Grocery for a bottle of Wandering Poet sake. When they were out, we hit up New Pioneer Co-Op. I wanted to pay for the sake, and he let me. We drove around downtown Iowa City, listening to the great music in his car. He told me that he would burn me a copy of the CD, since it was a mix tape that he designed for our first date. We went to his apartment to watch some movies and drink the sake. I had never seen Fantasia, but we had our first kiss during the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy danced by a huge hippopotamus.

After our first date, my poet wrote me another haiku:
Azure skies of Blue.
Deep Beautiful Passion Filled:
I long to see more.

I remember that my Mom called me the next morning to see how everything went. I was totally speechless. She said, "You need to come over, I need to know every detail." At the time, I was so awestruck at how perfect the date went and I had nothing negative to say. Jake did everything right, he had no quirks that I could detect that could have been a turn off. The conversation I had with Mom was very matter of fact and to the point. I knew I like him, and with in days I knew I loved him. He looked good on paper, it felt right in my heart, and I have always said that God dropped Jake on my windshield. It was so cut and dry and easy with every feeling and emotion falling right into place. There was no avoiding it, so I didn't. "It was...magic."

4 comments:

ChurchPunkMom said...

Awe!! What a beautiful post! And what an awesome first date!

so sweet.... *sigh*

Lisa said...

How ROMANTIC! I can see why you guys are still so much in LOVE! Awesome. I can't believe you can remember the DATE of your first date! Thanks for sharing this with everyone. AWESOME!

Amanda S. said...

very nice :)

Angela said...

I made your blog... Yay... I love both you and Jake. Glad I could kindof be a part of getting you two together and I loved that trip to FL... you were silly happy because of him... :) (and maybe the sunshine, too)