Happy anniversary, Jeromy with an O!

Today is our wedding anniversary. Jeromy and I have been married four whole years. It seems a lot longer than that. Both of us have trouble keep track of how long we’ve been married because it feels like we’ve known each other forever.


We met at Spirits in Ponca City. Spirits is a dark and smoky hotel bar on 14th Street.

When we worked at the Blackwell Journal-Tribune, my friend Leah and I devised a plan of action that would begin at work and end singing karaoke at Spirits.

She planned to meet her boyfriend there when he got off work. She planned for me to meet some guy she had been trying to set me up with for several weeks.

The day started like any other Wednesday: Leah was an ad rep, and I was managing editor. She went to sell ads, and I started editing stories and laying out pages.

We knew we had to get finished as early as possible because our duty that day was take the Guthrie News Leader to Guthrie because the driver couldn’t make it to Blackwell that day.

(The Guthrie and Blackwell papers are owned by the same company, and Guthrie printed at Blackwell during that time. Normally, Edward came to get the Guthrie papers, but for whatever reason, he was not able to pick them up that day, so Leah and I volunteered to take them down south.)

Leah called a friend of hers from Tecumseh, and she met us at a convenience store in Guthrie, and we took her back to Blackwell with us.

By the time we got back to Blackwell, it was after 5 p.m., so we headed to Leah’s to get ready to go to Spirits.

We hung out for several hours and started to Ponca City. She kept trying to get a hold of my blind date but had no luck.

When we arrived at Spirits, there were about 10 people there. We picked a table close to the wall, a few feet away from a table where my future husband sat with my future father-in-law.

As the karaoke music started playing, I noticed the man with the cowboy hat sitting at the table nearest to us sure was singing a lot. I figured he must be a pro, and I needed a duet partner.

“Can you sing ‘Picture?’” I asked him.

“Sure! I’ll sing ‘Picture’ with you,” he said.

“Great! What’s your name?” I asked as I started to fill out my song slip.

“It’s Jeromy – with an ‘O,’” he said.

I rolled my eyes and told Leah, “I don’t care how you spell it! I just want you to sing the song.”

After a few minutes, we were called to sing. I totally screwed up the song, but he didn’t care. He gave me a hug afterwards and whispered, “Save me a dance later” in my ear. How suave.

I saved him a dance, alright – several dances, in fact. I don’t think I danced with anyone else that night. I may have danced with Leah’s boyfriend, but that didn’t count.

When the bartender yelled “last call!” we got our things together and headed out the door. Jeromy walked me out and told me to call him.

Yeah right! I handed him my phone number and told him I would not be calling him, but he was welcome to call me.

I had a strange feeling I would marry him when my phone rang at 11:16 the next morning. We talked for more than 30 minutes, and the conversation ended with an invitation from him to join his family at Kaw Lake for their annual Fourth of July get-together. As crazy as it was, I accepted.

Had I not gone, I’m not sure if we would be celebrating our anniversary today, but I suspect we would. The weekend, however, is another story in itself … for another day. We still talk about that weekend, and I suspect we always will.

We met June 28, 2005, and married Feb. 11, 2006. I guess we were just ready, and here we are today. I think I’ll go wake up my husband of four years and give him a big smooch. I have a feeling, it’s going to be a good day!

Readings:

Matthew 14:22-36
Acts 20:13-38
Psalm 34
Exodus 30, 31