My husband doesn’t like The Notebook. I don’t blame him; after all, he is a straight dude, but it does happen to be one of my favorite movies. I’ve always been a romantic, even though my love life was a fucking train wreck prior to my current relationship with said husband. He might not want to admit it, but our story has plenty of similarities to Noah and Allie’s story, such as…
1. We met by fate. It was the exact day I returned to North Carolina from a visit to my home state of Ohio, where I was the maid of honor in my best friend’s wedding. Just like fate brought Allie to the South to meet Noah (and me to the South to meet Zach, come to think of it), fate brought him to my door on a random Monday afternoon when I was actually home to answer. I guess we were both in the right place at the right time.
2. I wasn’t attracted to him at first. In all fairness, my first physical impression of someone rarely goes far. I usually find myself either attracted to or repulsed by someone’s personality, so it takes me some time to get a good read on them. If I like a dude’s personality, the physical attraction usually kicks in after that, and this case was no different. That’s why I don’t feel bad about admitting my initial lack of attraction; I tend to see people from the inside out. I prefer to read the book and see if it’s any good before I spend too much time analyzing the cover.
3. He kept trying until he got the girl. I had been screwed over pretty badly by several dudes in a row around that time, and I was fiercely devoted to protecting myself from further harm by staying single forever. He texted me nearly every day and I enjoyed talking to him, but I thought it was just going to be a friendship. Just to be clear, I’m not advocating for men to persistently accost women who have already taken out restraining orders and bought extra 12-gauge buckshot, but there is a respectful way to show interest without being a creep. He never asked for nudes or texted “U up?” at two in the morning. Instead, he texted just to ask how my day was and how work was going…you know, like an actual human being who wanted to have a conversation with me. I think that was the key. None of those other guys treated me like I was worth having a real conversation with.
4. It took time and patience on his part, but eventually I did agree to go get a beer at the Ale House and watch a basketball game with him. A couple weeks after that, we were officially a couple. About a year after that, he asked me the question I thought guys never asked anymore…and I said yes.
5. He is exactly the type of romantic who would stay by my side and read to me every day if I had dementia and couldn’t remember things anymore. He’d probably never admit it because that would betray his tough manly exterior, but you can take my word on it. 😜
Sometimes I think I should write down our story in detail as a sort of “The Notebook, part two” and publish it as a novella. It would be a modernized Notebook of course, since they didn’t have Facebook or texting in the 40’s. If possible, I’d like to have Channing Tatum play my husband in that movie and….who would play me? Anna Kendrick, maybe. She looks kind of like a younger me and even has the same first name. That’s not a bad idea.
Musings of a Dog Mom 