How I Met Your Mother - Part I

Easton and Emmy,

Above is a picture of your Mother from Mother's Day, 2010. When you look at this picture, a few things should be immediately striking:

1. You've got a hot Mama (Easton would say in "You're a hot mama, and a babe and a sweetheart and I love you up to the moon!")
2. You're blessed with her genes

Your Mom is not only those things, but to me, she's also the most important thing in this world. You might be asking yourself, how did you and Mom meet? Well, that is a tale to tell indeed. In the Fall of 1992, I was still going to college, trying to finish off my engineering degrees (it would take me until the Spring of 94 to accomplish the feat). I was friends with what can only be described as an eclectic group of misfits, from fellow students in school to various people I met while out and about. One of these friends was working at one of the local establishments around the East Side of Milwaukee, his main job to keep order within said establishment. As will often happen in these situations, I became familiar with my friends' colleagues, one of whom was named John. Now John had a girlfriend, but he always seemed to hang around this one particular small girl, a very pretty woman who happened to be your Mother.

I always wanted to ask your Mom out, but I was terribly shy and could not bring myself to do it. In addition, John and Mom hung out A LOT, or so it seemed, and I thought that maybe something was going on between them. Throw into the mix that another one of my friends also liked her and I pretty much assumed I didn't have a chance. Turns out that John had nothing going on with her and my other friend crashed and burned in his attempt to woo her. That brings us to a September Day in Milwaukee, where a festival called Indian Summer was taking place. The Violent Femmes were playing and of course, most of my friends wanted to see them. We ran into John and Mom. For some reason, she asked me out. I remember being shocked. She gave me her number and I called her shortly thereafter for our first date.

We decided to go to a restaurant/bar called McGillycuddy's on Water Street. Most of the evening consisted of me talking to her. Mom might have said eight words to me all night. I believe I found out that she was majoring in pre-law and that was about it. We went to sit on the rocks by Bradford beach where I continued to talk; She said very little. I explained to her that I would need to get back soon to begin studying for the next semester (which didn't start for a week). She drove me home, I kissed her goodnight and went up to read. She thought I was blowing her off and lying about having to study before classes began. Truth is, I really did want to get ahead that semester. Another truth, I really liked her even more. I can't explain why 100 exactly, I was just really attracted to her and I could tell that there was something really special about her. It just felt right. She was really shy, like me, and I liked that, though later I told her in a future date that if she did not start talking soon, I would leave. She never stopped talking after that and I was grateful, as we learned much together the next few years.

Neither of us had very much money, but it didn't matter. We spent the next few years scraping by to finish school. We saw each other at our best and worst. You can really gage how much someone cares about you by seeing if they stick with you in the worst of times, when you're at your lowest. Your Mom always stuck by me, always believed in me. And I believed in her.

I will always believe in her, until the day I die.