Well, it all started on the golf course. My high school girlfriends and I decided to get a job at the Tournament Players Club of the Twin Cities to work for the summers in between our college semesters. There were 6 of us all together- Julia, Kristin, Lyndsay, Amanda, Jess, and me. We were the beverage cart drivers and we also worked in the Midway Grill which is a little building with snacks, drinks, and food in between the 9th and 10th hole and at the practice facility. We had so much fun!
My first year working I noticed a really cute boy who worked there too! He worked in Outside Operations. We called them the cart boys. They organized and cleaned the golf carts and helped set up events. It wasn't until the following summer that I discovered his name, Tom Wiebusch, and told my friends about my little crush on him. He was immediately assigned a code name so others wouldn't know of our talks. His name was "hot sandwiches". When I would come into work in the afternoon I would want to know if he was working so I would go on the radio and ask one of my friends, "Do you have any hot sandwiches today?" and they would reply with either, "Yeah, I just sold one on the 4th hole" (which meant Tom was working and they last saw him on the 4th hole) or, "No, I don't have any" (which meant Tom wasn't at work today). Towards the end of that summer we had really made progress in our relationship. He knew my name and we would have conversations some days! Julia was working one evening and saw a note up in the kitchen that was from Tom inviting everyone to his house for an end of the year bon fire AND it had his phone number on it. Julia grabbed the note and took it with her thinking, if we have the note, no one else will know about the party. It worked out well and we were the only girls from work there! =) Good job Julia! We had a lot of fun. Both my friends and I really got to know Tom and we really hit it off. During the night, Tom looked at me and said, "I am going to marry you someday. Really, you are going to CA and I am going to SC, but one day we're both going to come back here and our paths are going to cross again and I am going to marry you." I laughed and played it cool but I pretty much considered it an engagement (he he). A week after the bon fire Tom left for Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and I left for San Diego, CA to finish off our senior years of college. We still kept in touch every once in awhile- talking on the phone and getting to know each other as friends.
I returned to MN the following August having graduated from Point Loma and earning my CA teaching credential that summer. It was fun to be back because I missed MN summers so much! Tom and I didn't start talking right away other than brief conversations in between bev car runs. However, sometime in September Tom called me and invited me to a Twins game. Of course, I agreed! We had so much fun that night! We had box seats with free food and free Twins paraphernalia. Both Tom and I consider this to be our first date. We knew instantly that something between us was special and that we wanted to learn more about each other. We continued dating that whole year and grew closer despite distances that set us a part (Katie's trip to Europe and Tom's last semester at Coastal Carolina).
