I've got my own Edward Cullen

Taking a break from my regular scheduled nonsense to share a little something different with you.  Men are welcomed to read, too!

The Twilight "Breaking Dawn" movie just came out, as many of you know.  Like a tween, I read all four books long ago.  The Twilight series is right beside The Hunger Games in terms of book series that I devoured in a short period of time, with the latter being consumed faster.  Also, like a tween, I already have tickets to the movie!  Ahhh!!!  I am going to see it tonight with some friends of mine.  Although I'll be staring at the screen at Edward and thinking about the true love he has for Bella, I will know that, obviously, it is all fake.  With the possible exception of the man down the street who sits shirtless in his garage in his kitchen chair with his drink atop an overturned paint bucket staring at everyone as they drive past, there are no vampires.

Source: The Twilight Saga

But we all have our Edward Cullens. 

I mean, sort of. 

The ones we love now or have loved in the past may not look like Edward Cullen, but made our hearts beat fast like Bella's does when he came near.  Some of us have not met him yet.  Some of us may never want to meet him.  The men may have had a Bella they've loved in the past or love now or...what?  Ohhhhhh.  Some of us wish I'd abandon this paragraph and go on to the next one.  Okay.  I will.

I met my Edward Cullen in 1995, but this is what he looked like in 1977:

This is one of my favorite pictures of him EVER.
Our younger son looks exactly like him here, except our
son has dark hair like mine. 

We married on November 20, 1999. Tomorrow will mark 12 years of marriage. Twelve years. That makes me feel old, but, more than that, it makes me feel grateful.

If you were in the Break Room a week ago, you'll know that our marriage isn't perfect. We get into spats over things like leaving a cup on a desk. (Here is how I handled that.) There was also that time where I thought he was being unfaithful with his Aretha Franklin look-alike commuter bus driver. (That story here.)  There was also that time I picked him up from the bus stop in the evening pretending to be an airport chaffeur because of an argument we had that morning, with this sign in my window:

Still, he is my Edward Cullen.


He makes me laugh all the time, except for the times I want to stick him in a human slingshot. (Don't all couples want to do that sometimes?) He gets me. He balances me. He does things he doesn't want to do, like go on historical tours, because he knows it makes me happy. He takes his time picking out cards for me. He is an awesome dad. He lets me pile up the clean laundry in the corner of our room for a long time without saying anything. That alone makes him awesome.

Four years ago.

When I met Chris in 1995, I was immediately enamored.  At this risk of making you slightly sick to your stomach from being too sweet, I had a feeling about him.  I promise you, I imagined my children riding on his shoulders before we even had our first conversation.  I was VERY good at appearing nonchalant and elusive when all I really wanted to do was yell, "Pick me! Pick me!", like I was trying to get on a elementary school kickball team.


Once when we were working together at an after-school program, we had taken a field trip to the Riverwalk Mall in San Antonio.  We had barely had exchanged a few words by this point.  After a stranger who was drawing pictures of random people from a hidden table in the food court approached our group with his rendering of me, Chris slowly walked up and asked if he could see it.  That is when I knew that he was interested back.  Chris doesn't gush with words about his feelings, but little actions like that one, and countless others since, help me realize on the weekend of our 12th wedding anniversary that...


I am also his Bella.