First Date

Dawn and I had our first official date on February 28, 2002.

I had been dating this woman Laura, and we broke up on Sunday night, the 24th, just after getting back to my place from the opera. Macbeth was the opera, but I don't remember the opera company that did it. Some Russian company usually famous for ballet, I think. Kirov or Bolshoi. Bolshoi probably.

Dawn and I had been having lunch a lot. I had been trying to figure out some way of screwing up the courage to break up with Laura, but I wasn't especially finding the courage. Then, quite handily, she broke up with me. We talked it over and she was trying to let me down easy, and then at one point she seemed to be having second thoughts. So I assured her that she should really trust her first instinct, and that I would be okay.

So that was Sunday night, and I waited until Tuesday to tell Dawn. I was savoring it, like you do with wine. Like swirling and tootling it around your mouth. I finally casually mentioned it to her in an email on like Tuesday afternoon. And then I just as casually asked her if she'd like to have dinner or go to a movie sometime. She said she just might like that.

Dawn stopped by on Thursday night and we had dinner, before she went to the ballet. That was Thursday, February 28, 2002. We got married the following April. And now we go to the ballet together.

She's great, that Dawn.