Today is the 3rd anniversary of my first date with Nicki Howe– A.K.A the future “Mrs. Workman“.
Our first date was a Friday night Southaven Chargers high school football game on August 29, 2008. They won that night- and so did I!
Nicki and I both graduated from Southaven– for me it was back in the pre-historic times of 1985, for Nicki it was 1991…post-parachute pants era.
It started off with dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, Huey’s. Dinner and conversation went well, but it was the most nervous I had ever been around “my friend” Nicki. She really looked great, but I was still worried about the “what if..?” of dating someone who had been a good friend for so long. Everyone else seemed to think it was the right thing to do, and told me I was an idiot if I didn’t try to go to the next step of a relationship with her. I still wasn’t sure if Nicki could see me as anything other than a friend and fellow geek. I had been interested in asking her out since I first met her, but her living in Nashville and me in Memphis made trying to date a bit difficult. But now she was living back here. A long distance relationship went from 3hrs away to 30 minutes away.
We had had spent some great times together at conventions, parties, camp outs, movies, and had become the two single boy/girl friends in the group. We had friends try to set us up, but we were both still concerned about messing up a good friendship. We had an all night conversation at a cabin on the river in which we became late night snacks for some skeeters. We shared a kiss after some Jello-shots and tequila- which is normally a bad combination! Then another night after another long conversation I tried some “moves” on her that pretty much went nowhere. I was concerned that I had crossed the friend line, and the next morning was even worse as I accidentally set off the house alarm and woke up her and a houseful of our friends- long story.
Luckily for me our friends continued to try to convince us to get together, and Nicki finally agreed to a date.
The dating confusion continued in the parking lot of Huey’s when we decided to take different vehicles (not a good date sign usually) and we couldn’t agree on the best way to get to “the game”. Apparently Nicki thought I was taking her to the DCC for a Riverkings hockey game- which was south of where we were, not north as I was trying to explain. Once that was worked out we got to the SHS football field and headed over to the home side- or what used to be the home side! They had redone the stands and switched the home/visitor sides of the fields. We had a good laugh! The rest of the night we talked about what had changed- field, buildings, band size, etc., and what hadn’t- Coach McCord! The guy still looked the same 20+ years later.
But something really historic happened that night- she agreed to go on a second date with me! Uh-oh, what now..?! This usually didn’t happen for me. She liked hockey games and wanted to see a Batman movie for our next date. I thought, “Yep, she’s a keeper!” It was a few dates later after a hockey game I told her I loved her. She looked like a deer caught in headlights, but she didn’t bolt!
Definitely a keeper!
On May 29th, 2010 I asked her to marry me. She said yes and made me a very happy man.
And to think, I have George Lucas, our Star Wars geek friends, Jello, and a severed finger to thank for my fiancee…life’s funny!
Happy Anniversary, Nicki- I love you. See you here at the alter in a couple months!
Lin