4 years.

today travis and i celebrate 4 years together. 4 amazing, wonderful, exciting, happy years. i can't believe it was that long ago when i convinced him to skip his monday class and take the train from baltimore to washington dc with me. we spent the whole day arm in arm (too nervous to hold hands) traipsing around the smithsonian. we had no agenda that day. when we got hungry, we ate. when we got tired, we sat. i will always remember that first date, and how my heart swelled every time he looked over at me and smiled. i never would have thought, on that day, that in 4 years we would be married and pregnant. very early on i knew he was different. a week after that day i woke up in the middle of the night with a searing pain in my abdomen. i called him and he ran over, drove me to the ER, and stayed with me all night while they treated me for an ovarian cyst. he held my hand the whole time. he brought me home late the next morning and helped me into bed. while i slept off the painkillers, he went to the store and bought me ginger ale, bread, and peanut butter. when i woke up he made me a sandwich. i called my parents to tell them about the ordeal, and i broke the news of our relationship by saying, "i'm OK. my boyfriend took me to the hospital." 3 days after that, i left for 10 days in italy. i knew he was different then, too. i missed him horribly and felt foolish for it. we had only been dating for 10 days, but had been close friends for much much longer. we had already said "i love you", and i knew i would marry him someday. as i told my best friend, cara all about him on the trip, i think she knew he was different, too. in a strange coincidence, there was a graffiti artist at work all over rome who went by the handle travis. every time i saw one of these tags, i took a picture: