First Georgia "Snow" and Memories

I woke up at 3:22 AM when I heard the first drops of sleet hitting the ground. It was so bittersweet to hear because if Richie were alive he would have got up, turned on the tv and have been glued to the weather channel until time to go to work. As I stood at the window and looked out at the yard slowly turning white, a flood of memories came into my heart.

The first time Richie and I spent time together was Super Bowl weekend 2000. The forecaset all week had been for a ice storm to come into the area. I had met Richie a few weeks earlier and I decided to call him and invite him to a party at Christie's house. All of us "single" people were getting together that night to go out and then have a slumber party. I'll never forget, Marlie was at my house when I called him the night before. He, Mark and Steven were going to Smith's Olde Bar with his MBA group and he asked us to go with him. I told him no, that I wanted to rest up for the following night. But we laughed and talked and I was so nervous because, well, I was outright chasing the boy!

The next night they came over to Christie's and the moment he walked in we were together. We immediately started a card game of "War" which I began losing from the drop of the first card. Now this wasn't really good because this was a drinking game and that meant I had to take a sip every time I lost. Needless to say, I was very giggly by the time we got through the first deck. After a few hours of hanging out and listening to music we all headed to our favorite place back then...Hole in the Wall. This is where Richie first kissed me. I remember us dancing (and many years later I would always tell friends that when Richie and I danced, all was right in the world) and me telling him that we would not have our "first" kiss at HITW! But Richie was a charmer and didn't easily give up and he actually "dipped" me and kissed me all at the same time...I was floating by the time we all left! This cute boy in the green Ga Tech baseball hat liked ME.

We spent the entire next day holed up at Christie's because the ice storm did hit and roads were bad so it was late in the afternoon on Saturday before the guys could even leave her complex. There were about 15 of us over there and we played games, watched tv and just had a great time. When he left that afternoon I knew that my life had changed...I didn't know why but I knew that Richie was going to become something significant to me.

So this morning as I stood there next to Levi looking out the window those memories took over and I felt myself taken back to that time. I remembered his laughter as he, Steven, Martin and Mark all joked around with each other that night. I remembered his smile...that Richie smile...the one that made me forget what I was saying if I saw it.

It is so hard to believe that 7 years ago Richie came into my life and now he is gone. My heart misses him and I would do anything to have one more moment with him.