I met my wife Jackie 21 years ago while serving in the US Navy stationed in San Diego, CA.  She was going to school to become a nurse about an hour north of where I was living.

One afternoon, my boss at the time had asked me and some others if we wanted to go to Tijuana, Mexico to celebrate his birthday. Of course we obliged, where else would a bunch of sailors want to go party on the cheap.

After a long night out, we were getting ready to head back and I noticed this beautiful long-haired woman on the dance floor. The only problem was, she was with some other guy. I couldn’t resist…asked her to dance and the rest was history. I knew she was the one after our first official date 2 weeks later at Red Lobster.

The best part of the story is that at the time, I was broke and when I asked a bartender to give me pen so I could write her phone number down, he said that would be $20. I had to borrow the $20 from my friend, and when I was done the bartender asked for the pen back. We have been married 19 years and I still have the piece of paper I wrote her number on.

Happy Valentine’s Day, Babe!

I love you!