D & D's Love Story: My first birthday with D

Where we left off: we hung out together, went on a real date. Things were good and he was shy.

Months later D and I were really close. Since most of our friends were still in school, once the fall hit there wasn't many people left for us to spend our time with. We would spend time at my parent's house or his parents house. Because D started out as a paramedic right away out of school and he was living at home, he always had a very very full bank account. I, on the other hand, was making peanuts and had a huge mountain of debt from a 3 month job that I did which forced me to commute.

So, my birthday rolled around. I was turning 22. D surprised me with tickets to go see the Lion King on broadway in Toronto. I was thrilled!! I love the Lion King and had never seen a big show like that. Finally, the weekend came where we were to make the long drive to Toronto.

D and I chatted and laughed the whole way. He would not let me pay for a thing. Not the gas, not lunch, not even a bottle of water at the gas station.

Then we got into the city and (this was before GPS was so common) he told me to read the map. "I don't think you want me to read the map, I don't know how to read a map" Still, he insisted that I should be directing him. To make a long story short, I had no idea where we were going, I was nervous about driving in the city and we got into our first argument. Not a good way to start off the trip. but we finally made it to the hotel and parked the car. He got a room at a hotel on the same street as the theater so that we could park the car and leave it there until we had to leave.

The rest of the trip was phenomenal. He took me to a nice dinner before the show and still would not let me pay for a thing (I snuck in a lunch when he went to the bathroom, he gave me shit for it but I wanted to pay for something). The show was absolutely AMAZING!! We had seats in the 6th row and I was sitting right on the aisle. At the beginning of the show animals would walk down the aisle to get to the stage to meet the future King Simba and they were all right beside me, it was amazing! The elephant costume was so big that there was 1 person in each of it's legs. I cried because it was so amazing!

Birthdays were never a big deal when I was growing up. (well mine weren't anyway, I had never had a birthday party and can honestly say that none of my birthdays stand out in my mind because they were not special or a big deal) so my 22nd birthday is the first one that I remember and will never forget.