M and I met in 1999 while volunteering for the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association while building a smolt trap on Ten Mile Creek in Lynden. M was the guy who knew everything about smolt traps and was the official from WDFW. I was a lowly college student who suddenly realized one day that I better get some volunteer hours on my resume if I ever wanted to get a job when I graduated. And that's all I remember about M from 1999. I volunteered again in 2000, this time as an Accounts Receivable clerk desperate to get out of my cubicle. M again was the guy who knew everything. On orientation day, he pointed to me and said, "You were here last year weren't you? Tell me, how can you tell a cutthroat trout smolt from a coho smolt?" Uhhhh.... "Spots on the dorsal fin?" And that is the first conversation I remember having with my future husband.
M at Lake Sammamish: I took this picture and then felt very self conscience about it. What kind of weirdo takes a picture of their boss? Me. Sigh...
The only picture of me working. Because I took all the pictures.
M hired me to work for him in 2000 on weekend bass tournaments, electrofishing surveys, and occasional bull trout surveys. We spent a lot of time driving to work sites and talking and getting to know each other. He liked to quiz me on my knowledge of classic rock and talk about politics. It was all very innocent. After all, I had a boyfriend and M was way older than me (and he had a lady friend). And he was a single dad with two daughters. He had no business getting interested in someone like me. Call it destiny or the hand of God or the meddling of sweet ten year old A- we ended up dating by the summer of 2001.
M on a bull trout survey. He is that little dot above the old growth log. I nearly died on this survey, but I got to hold M's hand when he pulled me out of the water ;)
We didn't go on normal dates (romantic dinners in restaurants, movies). Our romantic dinner and movie looked more like pizza while watching The Emperor's New Groove with A. But we still had so much fun! We went to Mount Baker with the girls and hiked. We walked at Lake Whatcom and went swimming with A. We went to the beach with the girls. We drove out to Whidbey Island with A. We watched the fireworks over Bellingham Bay on the 4th of July.
When the girls went to visit their mom, we went on a week long camping road trip that ended in M proposing to me. It was a wild six weeks of dating. But I like to count the two years we worked together as dating too- but without the kissing! Because that is what marriage is: work. The wild fun part ends when you come back to real life and have to pay the bills. I think having a good working relationship with M has made us successful; he is the big picture guy and I'm the detail person. We were like Mulder and Scully in the X-Files!
Since we had kids right away, the spontaneous trips around the state stopped. No one wants to drive more than two hours with a crying baby in a car seat or chase a wild two year old over a cliff. But we do still get to the beach a lot and spend as much time outdoors as possible. I'm getting so good at Classic Rock Trivia that I can name not only the band, but sometimes the lead singer! And we never get away from the fish talk. So I guess we are still doing all the things we did when we were dating...only without the Sobes and Sour Skittles!
