15 Years of Jello Hearts

1994: I first made jello hearts for my One True Love 15 years ago today. I took them over to his house in the afternoon. We sat around for a while and grinned at each other. Later on, when he was heading out on a date, he dropped by the Computer Lab at the Union where I was gearing up for an all-nighter and brought me a card.

1995: He called me from some island off the coast of Canada. Since we had still never kissed, I thought it was strange but it certainly made my heart flutter.

1996: I was playing hard to get at this point but I still gave him a used copy of Lady Chatterly's Lover AND jello hearts that year. A kiss was inevitable that spring.

1997-2000: Hmmmm.... living on separate ends of the earth, we still managed to exchange cards. Where was it all leading?

2001: He arrived at 10pm by train. I met him at the Flagstaff train station after 3 days en route. I had jello hearts for him. He had a duffle bag. He moved in to my place. We got engaged less than a month later and started planning a really fun weddin'.

PRESENT-DAY: We try to make it special without buying into the Hallmark BS. We get out and about. This year, we had a lunch date at our favorite Indian place. Tommy joined us but slept through the entire meal. Every year, he makes a homemade card and buys me a CD (usually Dolly Parton). I make him Jello Hearts. He doesn't really even like them but he eats them once a year. Now our children help me make them. We used to joke about making cute kids together. That was 15 years ago. We were right.