Finding Mark.

My life is so uninteresting lately, I thought I’d talk about how Mark and I fell in love. If the subject is just too sappy, you can blame it on Daphne Blue and her sappy getting-married post. All complaints go directly to her.

The summer after I turned 18 I was dating a juggler I met in the park (seriously). He was performing in a musical downtown and my girlfriend and I would hang out in the lobby during the show and act like idiots. The first time Mark saw me, I was trying to learn how to turn a cartwheel while wearing ridiculously short shorts and a tank top. He was in town visiting Chrissy, who was also in the musical and I remember seeing his standing on the landing smiling at me. He was working down in Mexico on a private sailing yacht and was just in town for a couple of weeks. I only saw him one other time during that trip. I ran upstairs to use Chrissy’s bathroom after dropping her off after a show and he sat up in the bed, his hair disheveled and his eyes all squinty and I felt my heart skip a beat just looking at him.

About a year later, the juggler and I broke up and I dated this absolute idiot. That relationship ended with separate flights home from a vacation and an unsightly bruise on my body. I went back to the juggler, but the magic (ha!) was gone and I was with him mostly because I was afraid of the other guys out there. The juggler didn’t have much to offer but at least he never left bruising.

Fast forward about one more year and Mark has returned from his life at sea and is living next door to Chrissy, his old friend and my current one. Chrissy is from Switzerland and would frequently make trips back. I’d house sit and this man, this sweet, quiet, funny man would check in on me in between gigs and we’d talk… endlessly. We started hanging out at opening night parties while the juggler and Chrissy would go do the actor thing and schmooze the donors. We made up our own game show and would giggle like teenagers.

Once, we were invited to a movie party and the juggler couldn’t attend. So Mark, Chrissy and I went together and I remember looking at him sitting on the floor in front of me and I had this insane urge to put my hand in his hair. We went out to dinner shortly after, just as friends as I was still dating the damn juggler. He kissed me that night and then told me he’d never touch me again if I didn’t leave the juggler… tonight. So I did. He left for a one week gig and when he returned, I had moved the juggler out of my life and grew an inch taller (seriously, the juggler was only 5’4” and I wouldn’t stand up straight around him. Mark’s 6’3” and I always stand at my full height with him).

Within about six months we were living together and four years after that, we married each other in a kick ass ceremony in the park. He’s the best thing that ever happened to me. So far, no regrets.