day 14: minutes, hours, etc.

If there were records kept for the most minutes logged on the phone between one man and woman, I think ASC and I might be first place winners.

Today, after we got off the phone, I started to think about that. Even the beginning of our relationship revolved around the phone.....

It was 14 February 1999. I was at Anderson University, in my dorm room, and my social butterfly/friend/college roommate was out for the evening. She and I shared a computer, and grade-oriented me was working on some project in front of the computer screen. An IM popped up for my roomie, and I quickly typed in a message that she wasn't here, this was her roommate, and I'd let her know you IM'd. He told me that he was out in California, at some required schooling after graduating boot camp, and that Jamie (my roommate) had been on his case for him to find a church out there. Feb 14 that year fell on a Sunday, and he finally made it to church that morning. I kept writing back that I'd let her know.....but he kept wanting to talk. Just a few minutes passed before the telephone rang. It was him, this guy named Aaron, whom I was beginning to think was a little odd. Either this Marine was having a VERY boring evening in the barracks, or he was finding something quite interesting about me. We talked for about an hour that night, simply finding out who each other was. He and Jamie were friends in high school, and since they were next to each other alphabetically, they always shared a locker by each other. She was my roommate purely at random, but what a great friend she was. Little did we know that by me answering her IM that one night, she set up a future husband and wife.

The phone calls from CA to IN continued, most every night, and for hours on end. We talked about everything under the sun, and we simply got to know everything about each other as friends. A month later, when he was to come home for a few days' on recruiter's duty, he decided that he'd drive to Anderson to take me out to dinner. I didn't learn until later that I probably should have taken him out to dinner, as a way to repay him for all the phone calls....in those days before cell phone popularity, he racked up phone bills in the hundreds of dollars. Whoops.

When the time came for him to go back to CA, we had both determined that we were a "we". The phone calls continued, despite the distance and the time difference. He came home and off active duty on August 5th of that year, proposed to me on Christmas Day, and we were married on August 5th of the next year.

Once we were married, the phone calls waned for a little while, until one fall day when we were suddenly faced with the importance of being able to get in touch with each other at a moment's notice. That day was September 11th. I was in class at IUPUI, and I borrowed a classmate's cell phone to call Aaron at work. I never remember hearing such a scared, fearful Aaron on the phone before. Later that same day, we purchased our first cell phone. That day forced our lives to change in many ways.

The addition of the cell phone started a new routine. Aaron would call me at home on his way home from work, each and every day. It was normal for us to talk the entire time, until he arrived home. To this day, he still does this.....well, except for when he's fighting a war in a foreign country.

And even not counting his deployments, Aaron and I have spent a lot of time apart. Two-week ATs (annual training) in the summers, drill weekends, schools, business trips--we're no strangers to time away from each other. In fact, Aaron likes to joke that we've only truly been married for about 7 years now, instead of 11. Despite that, there have been so many phone calls between the two of us over the 12 years we've been together.

One might think we've about hit that point where we run out of things to say.

Not a chance.

Today's phone call lasted about 40 minutes, and even though I could've chatted for longer, I knew he was tired. The 8 1/2 hour time difference isn't the easiest to manage. But it's okay. I know I'll talk to him tomorrow.