Why I Love Music

We were driving in the car today...well, I was driving. Saundra was riding in the passenger seat reading her book and generally not paying attention to anything. The CD is Billy Joel's The Stranger. Track 8 - Get it Right the First Time - comes on, and it brings to mind the first time I met her.

At technical school, they have what they call a "phase program." It sort of eases you from basic training mentality back into real-life mentality (or at least normal active duty mentality). So, anyway, it was my last day in 2nd phase (with 11 o'clock curfew on the weekend, have to be in uniform if you exit the building, etc). My plan was fairly simple: go to the enlisted club in uniform until 11, then come home, change, and wait for midnight and 3rd phase (civvies after duty hours, no curfew on the weekend, etc.), then go back out and live the night. I (and my buddy) sign out with the "dorm guard," and she asks if we're going to the E-club. We are, and say so. She tells us that she has a friend in need of an escort, and yells up the stairwell. And down she walks. Getting to the E-club involves walking down a hill in the woods with no lights around (hence the escort). We get to a spot where there are cement steps placed in the hill where it gets steep. And she asks for an arm to steady her down the stairs. (She's a little night blind and is, of course, wearing heels.) Now, I'm about to get some real freedom, so I'm a bit - shall we say - giddy. So, instead of offering my arm, I pick her up and carry her down the stairs.

Seeing that we're now married, I guess I did get it right the first time.

The next track is Everybody Has a Dream. And I listen, still half lost in my memories, until the chorus comes along:

I know that everybody has a dream
Everybody has a dream
And this is my
dream, my own
Just to be at home
And to be all alone...with you

I smile, for Billy has, yet again, said exactly what I was thinking.

--Beav