Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Ash Wednesday (aka "Destiny Day")

It was 10 years ago on Ash Wednesday 1998 that mine and Jonathan's fate was sealed - all due to a two liner email that I received from him.

His message:

Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 14:01:14 - 0800
From: Jonathan Potter
To: ashleyb@u.washington.edu
Subject: holy day

Ash,

It just occurred to me that today is your day. Ash Wednesday.

Are you celebrating in any special way?

Religiously,
Jon


I didn't want to admit that this email meant anything, but deep down in my heart it sealed the deal for me! This line of thinking was actually a bit crazy considering by my standards, we weren't even dating at this point! We were "just hanging out", and nothing more was going to happen between us, because this was the first time in my life that I had a focus that didn't include a boy! I was heading to the peace corps for two years. I had already been accepted. My plan was to go serve a two year term in Honduras, become fluent in Spanish, come back, find a bilingual graduate program in Speech Language Pathology, and become bilingually certified.

My oh my how things changed!

Anyway, back to the destiny part of Ash Wednesday - I had this secret fantasy dating back to my juvenile junior high school days, that someone, some where at some point in my life would spontaneously wish me a "happy Ash Wednesday" or simply acknowledge that is was my special day. Years and years went by and no one ever noticed or thought it was worth mentioning (not even one particular jerk of a boyfriend to whom I had left countless hints too) ..... until this day.

And every Ash Wednesday following this day! It seems like since then I have received numerous spontaneous wishes for Ash Wednesday from a variety of people and from a variety of places. Funny how that works!

What makes it even more interesting of a story is that that very evening a few hours after I received the email from Jonathan, I got a call from that particular jerk of a boyfriend. We hadn't talked in 5 years, and he tracked me down in Seattle from Chattanooga, TN to call and wish me a "Happy Ash Wednesday". Asshole! He couldn't muster up the energy to do it the four-on-again-off-again-years that we dated, but he could do it five years to0 late and once again leave me feeling sick to my stomach which he was so good at doing!

YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! "Don't you dare taint my destiny," I thought.

Needless to say, my destiny wasn't tainted in any way, and here I am ten years later sharing my life with the man who fulfilled my fantasy! Who could ask for anything more?

Happy "Destiny Day", Babe!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ash, I am so thankful that,"whats his name" didnt get it together to wish you an Ash Wednesday until too late!! I am even more thankful that Jono stepped up to the plate and sealed yall's destiny!! What a perfect match ya'll are!!Good job Jono!!