a few thoughts on love

I recently took a quiz on Facebook entitled “What 80’s Movie Are You”? My niece, Becky, had taken it and she was “A Princess Bride”. I was curious to find out what 80s movie I would be. I was surprised to find that I too was “A Princess Bride”. I sent it on my friend, Barb, who also turned out to be “A Princess Bride”. I thought about the questions that were asked and I think we must all have answered that we believe in love at first sight.
I know that I do. I had never fallen in love with any guy I had ever dated. I liked some a lot but had never felt really right with any one. I doubted that I would ever marry. I wasn’t looking for anyone to marry. But then I spotted B in the cafeteria. Then again from my dorm window while he was playing flag football in the quad. I felt a strong and urgent need to connect with this person. I guess he felt the same. I was dating another guy on his floor who resided in the room directly across from B. I was sitting on Rab’s bed while he was on the phone. B walked into the room and whispered in my ear “I like your legs”. Rab was furious. He demanded to know what B had whispered but I never revealed it. My roommate, Libby, experienced love at first sight about the same time that I did. Fate is a funny thing. She and her love, Tom, shared the same last name. She didn’t have to change her name on her driver’s license or her social security card when she married.
I had a friend, Sharon, that I met in Lamaze class when she and I were preparing to deliver our first babies. She had lived and studied for a year in France while she was in college. She taught me to make the French vinaigrette dressing that she had learned to make while living there. It is still my favorite dressing to this day. She told me that she had met her husband at a function in a park. He asked her to share a paddleboat with him and they ended up kissing and necking wildly out on the water. She said that normally she wouldn’t do something like that but it felt right with him.
I went to see Mama Mia (another love story) on Sunday night with my friend, Mary. We have been going to plays together for eight years. She told me that she broke off a wedding once and then several years later she met Gabby. After a few dates he presented her with a mixed tape of heartfelt songs that he had made especially for her. Mary’s friend asked her if that didn’t weird her out and scare her. He barely knew her and was giving her such an intimate gift. But Mary wasn’t creeped out at all. She said that she knew she wanted to marry him less than two weeks after she had met him.
My baby sister, Melissa, also cancelled a wedding before she attended the Illinois State Police Academy and met her love at first sight. My big sister, Debbie, had a wild crush on her guy before meeting him and shortly thereafter marrying him.
I could never understand when someone was trying to make a decision to marry…was wondering if he was the one. You just know if he is or if he isn't. I knew I wanted to marry B. I felt as if my heart were being wrenched from my chest whenever we were apart or he made an offhanded comment about the cuteness of another girl.
I am seeing my son fall in love now. He had his first “date” when he was in seventh grade. He and Allison went to a movie. He was attracted to Allison because “Allison is not like other girls, Mom. Allison is more like a boy”. Time revealed that Allison really was more like a boy but by then Jay had moved on to girls who were more like girls. These girls had to want to do the things that Jay wanted to do. He had no patience for their interests and girl chatter. But someone has changed that. Now I see a boy who prepares special Valentine’s Day meals served on special heart decorated plates and gazes lovingly into brown eyes.
I love love. Don’t you love love?