Earlier this week, I told Brad not to worry about getting me flowers or presents for our Two Year Anniversary. It's almost Christmas, after all, and we have both a trip to Lubbock and a trip to California together to think about, so I valiantly surrendered my need for relationship validation via a $75 dozen of roses for the good of our checkbook. This morning, I woke up to a dozen roses on top of the record player, and a card that said (among other things) "My baby does NOT not get roses on our anniversary."

Awww. Well, MY baby does not not get schmoopy things written about him on the internet on our anniversary. And so, I now present to you:

The Story of How Brad & Lucy Got Together: Official Soundtrack and Liner Notes

Track One: Unemployed Boyfriend by Everclear
SO, first off - the title of the song is terrible, I know, and wholly inappropriate since Brad is one of the hardest working people I've ever met. The band - yes, I realize that this band is Not Cool. The song? Well, the song rocks my face off, and reminds me of the first time I ever saw Brad.

One perfect fall day in September of 2002, I was walking up to the door of Ralph's Records in Lubbock and walked past a most intimidating boy sitting on the hood of his car smoking a cigarette. The Ralph's guys always kind of scared me, because they were the kind of guys who knew of every band that had ever released an album and were likely to refuse to help me find something they deemed Crappy Pap and say, "God. Do you even know your daughter? There's no way she likes that song. Oop, is she in a coma?". So when I walked by the guy sitting on the car, I kind of looked away at first, expecting to get the royal Too Cool for Losers That Like Wilco brush off.

Instead, he smiled and said "Hi," and I felt this electric zing of ... something, I'm not really sure what, not love at first sight but more like a PAY ATTENTION RIGHT NOW kind of shock to my chest. I think I mumbled something resembling "Hee-yi, I mean hi" and blushed before walking inside. I also started special ordering music that I hoped was cool in order to have a reason to go into the store on a weekly basis. Some people call that Stalking, I call it a Crush.

This is gonna sound a little impulsive
This is gonna sound a little insane
I know you don't know me yet
But you and I, we will be together someday
Someday
I know, I know, I sound like I'm on drugs
Listen to me when I say
That ever since when I first saw you
Sittin' on your car outside
You asked for a cigarette
I couldn't stop starin' at your eyes

Track Two: El Scorcho by Weezer
A few weeks after Brad said hi to me, we ran into each other again really late one night at the O bar. Because the Lubbock scene is really just an endless equation of overlapping social circles, we had several friends in common, one of whom was at the bar that night. It was just past midnight, and Quis and I had spent the earlier part of the evening downing Chiltons at Adolphs and serenading each other with really, really bad Karaoke (okay, so I do sing in public - but only with the help of liquid courage), so we were well past loopy and on into the glazed-eye scream-laugh-barhop portion of the evening. Brad and his friends were walking out just as we were sitting down, but he made it a point to come over, shake my hand (he is a gentleman, you know) and say, "Haven't we met before?" right before I melted into a pool of crush-induced-oh-my-GOD-it's-HIM drool.

From that point, we ended up hanging out with our overlapped groups a few times (perhaps aided by several friends who made it a point to make sure the both of us were in the same room on a regular basis.) At one point, I went into Ralph's for my weekly stalking, and he wrote his phone number on my receipt, and I had to hold on to the counter to keep from fainting. We progressed into random, semi-awkward phone calls and several more group field trips to the Town Draw followed by after-parties at his house, and then there was that time that I grabbed him and kissed him outside on his porch. For three days afterward, we didn't talk - I didn't call him, because really, shouldn't he be calling me? He didn't call me, because really, wasn't this all getting to be kind of freaky and too too much?

On the night of the third day, I called. I told him to be ready in 20 minutes because we needed to talk. When I got to his house, I stayed in the car, forcing him to come outside and get in. Then I drove him around the Loop (the highway in Lubbock that encircles the city) and initiated the "what is really going on here" talk, all the while playing this song on repeat as a kind of subconscious suggestion:

How stupid is it? I can't talk about it
I gotta sing about it and make a record of my heart
(How stupid is it? Won't you give me a minute
Just come up to me and say hello to my heart)
How stupid is it?
For all I know you want me too and maybe you just don't know what to do or maybe you're scared to say: "I'm falling for you"
I wish I could get my head out of the sand 'cuz I think we'd make a good team
and you would keep my fingernails clean
but that's just a stupid dream that I won't realize
'cuz I can't even look in your eyes without shakin', and I ain't fakin'
I'll bring home the turkey if you bring home the bacon.

(everybody now) I'm a lot like you so please, Hello, I'm here, I'm waiting
I think I'd be good for you and you'd be good for me.

Track Three: Untouchable Face by Ani DiFranco
Surprisingly, my attempt at subconscious manipulation didn't work so well, at least not the first time. Having been burned before, Brad was wary of getting into a relationship, even with someone as fabulous as me. He did, however, want to be friends "for real" and also "see where things went." Alright. That last part left a door open, I thought, so I took the challenge. We started hanging out together non-committal-ly, mostly watching movies, usually with me trying to impress him with my irresistible charm. Even though I was doing most of the work - calling him, making plans, painting my fingers and toes and buying new clothes quite frequently - for some reason I didn't give up. I kept going, chipping away at his commitment-phobic facade bit by bit.

Finally, just before Thanksgiving, we were seeing each other so often and having so much fun together that I thought - surely he is JUST ABOUT to see the light. That year I had plans to go visit my AmeriCorps girls for Thanksgiving, and was going to be out of town for most of the holiday week. Our last night to hang out was the Friday before Thanksgiving, so of course we all went to the O bar. Brad and I were sitting next to each other at a table full of friends when a girl that he had previously dated (well, "dated" is really a strong term here) sat down at our table. I was less than thrilled, of course, especially when she announced that it was her birthday.

A few drinks and awkward stares across the table later, Brad got up to go to the bathroom and walked behind The Girl. I watched as she grabbed his arm, pulled him close to her, and said "Don't I get a birthday kiss?" And then - she kissed him. Just a quick peck, but STILL. STILL. To this day, I can't believe that I didn't throw my drink in her face. Instead, Brad basically ran to the bathroom, and I turned to Quis and said "WHAT THE FRACK"(yeah, that's what I said), and asked for my tab. (To Brad's credit, he says that when he got to the bathroom, he banged his head against the wall repeatedly. In my version, I imagine him saying, "Stupid, stupid, stupid." But that's just me.)

By the time he got back from the bathroom, I was halfway out the door. He followed me to the car and got in; I didn't say anything, but instead grabbed an Ani DiFranco tape and played it AT THE LOUDEST POSSIBLE VOLUME:

Think I'm going for a walk now
I feel a little unsteady
I don't want no one to follow me
except maybe you

I could make you happy, you know
if you weren't already
I could do a lot of things
and I do

(Well, the chorus to the song is the real reason why I played it at that moment, but for those you'll have to look here.)

I remember standing outside later that night in the cold, after screaming a million reasons why I was justified in feeling so, so betrayed even though we didn't really have a commitment yet for either of us to betray. After all of my months of perserverance - the slow, slow chipping away with a teeny, tiny little chisel - I finally brought out the sledgehammer.

"You can choose to do WHATEVER you want, with WHOEVER you want," I said, "or you can CHOOSE ME."

Brad was quiet for what seemed an eternity, and then said, "I choose you."

Here's what happens when you finally get the movie moment you've been waiting for ever since you first saw Pretty in Pink.

You say, "Oh."

I don't think either of us was ready yet for that moment, or what the moment really meant. We didn't ride off into the sunset, or jump into each others arms, or anything like that. I just said, "Oh," looked at the ground, and then we went inside and didn't talk about it again. I left the next day for Charleston and missed him like crazy the whole time.

Track Four: Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway(again) by Wilco
After I got back from Charleston, we were happy, we were together all the time, we held hands in the movies and blushed alot, we were sweet and awkward around each other, we floated in that nebulous grey area of "So, are we dating, or what?" I was gun-shy from the first talk that we had, so I didn't want to be the one to ask. Weeks went by, and my friends asked me what was going on. They told me that his friends were asking them what was up, since boys don't talk about that stuff to each other. I had no answer.

Well it's a test but I believe
A kiss is all we need
All the above for being in love
Shouldn't that alone be enough?
Oh it's tough when love's a weed
It grows inside of me

Finally, one night, two years ago today, I looked at Brad in the eye and said (with everything to lose), "So, am I your girlfriend, or what?" Brad laughed and replied, "Well, I already call you my girl."

That was my real movie moment, I think, and that's why we finally decided to celebrate December 16th as our anniversary. In some ways it's hard to believe it's been that long; in others, it seems not long enough. The other night Brad asked if this was our third anniversary. Um, no. Two years. Two years. TWO YEARS.

That brings us up to the final song on the soundtrack.

Track Five: Lovely Day by Bill Withers
I came home one day shortly after we got together, and Brad had left me a copy of a Bill Withers CD with this song playing on repeat on my stereo:

When I wake up in the morning, love
and the sun light hurts my eyes
And something without warning, love
bears heavy on my mind
Then I look at you and the world's alright with me
Just one look at you and I know it's gonna be
A lovely day

Happy Anniversary, Baby D (short for Baby, DAMN yo' fine, and Hellz Yes, YO' MINE.) Love, Love, Love.

Lucy loves you |