SUPER BOWL has a SUPER MEANING

Super Bowl, Detroit Michigan, 2006, Pittsburgh Steelers vs Seattle Seahawks…I had zero skin in the game.  However, I was there and enjoyed every second!!

I was the Marketing Manager for the Washington Redskins Premium Club Department.  Every NFL teams sends a marketing ‘team’ to the Big Game, even if our boys aren’t actually playing.   Usually, Wednesday – Saturday night, big sponsors (Topps Trading Cards, Red Bull and Under Armor…to name a few) put on HUGE pre-game parties. My co-workers and I  were attending one of those parties that Saturday evening to meet up with some partners we had with other groups.

We were at The Vault in Downtown Detroit.  At the time, I was single, had been single for a while and was in a good place.  I was enjoying myself with my co-workers listening to Snoop Dog (no lie!!) when this guy walks up behind me and says “phenomenal shirt, phenomenal back”. (I was wearing a top that tied around my neck but dipped down to my waistline so my back was exposed.) I did a cute/annoyed little laugh, said thank you and walked away.  First, TERRIBLY cheesy line and secondly, I honestly didn’t want to be bothered with small talk, from a strange guy in Detroit Michigan of all places.  I was there with my co-workers/girlfriends and wanted to enjoy my time.

Next thing I know, this guy is chatting with one of my friends a couple of co-workers down.  First thought ‘standard guy…gets shot down by one gal, immediately moves to the next’ (and no, I wasn’t a guy-hater, I was just annoyed that he had the nerve to stay in the same group of gals!!)

Fast forward about 5-7 minutes and my co-worker looks at me and says “T, lets go to the bathroom”.  We head to the restroom and she tells me he has been asking about me this entire time and give the guy a chance…he’s super sweet.  UGH

So, after the bathroom visit, this guy, Peter, and I chat it up and come to find out, he isn’t too bad.  But, I still had the mindset that I wasn’t going to waste too much time talking with this random guy from “8 mile” 😉  So, when he asked me to lunch the next day, I answered “sure” knowing there was no way I could go before the game as I had responsibilities beforehand.  We exchanged numbers and when he texted me on Sunday AM about lunch plans, I politely let him know, “unfortunately there would be no way I could make it”.  So, he immediately said “ok, how about I text you after the game”.  At this point, I am just annoyed at myself for even giving him my number.  Well, I basically forgot about him until literally 3 minutes after the game I receive a text “where can I pick you up to hang out before you head back to DC tomorrow”.  Now, I am kind of liking his persistence…

We hung out after the game for a couple of hours and totally hit it off.  He said he wanted to visit me in DC, which I thought was just a line…well, 2 weeks later, he came to DC and then again 3 weeks after that and thus, our long distance relationship began.  At first, DC to Detroit and then DC to Chapel Hill.

Peter was 29 and I was 27 when we started dating so I think we both ‘knew’ pretty early on in our relationship that we had met ‘the one’.  That being said, I was not moving anywhere for any guy because I had a great thing in DC – my family was close by, AMAZING girlfriends, I had a great and fun job with the Redskins and I was also in my 8th year of cheering for the Redskins.  Why would I walk away from that??  So, we did the long distance thing and saw one another as often as we could.  And, crazy enough, it was my schedule that prevented us from seeing one another as often as we’d like rather than his and he was a resident at UNC.  So, we dated long distance until the day after our honeymoon.  And that worked for us 🙂

So, as cheesy as that first line was, he reminds me often…”look where it got me”

So, each Super Bowl Sunday, he and I get a bit nostalgic reminiscing about how we met!!

And, unfortunately I don’t have many digital pictures to share…thank goodness we have Facebook to keep them in one place these days!!