Pearl Jam's First Kiss: My Valentine's Day Love Story

Everyone dreams of that first kiss with that special someone, hoping it is indicative of true love. You play it out in your head time and time again, yet it never quite comes up in the way that you have pictured. I had the opposite problem with my current romantic interest. I had no concept of how to envision that first magical moment, and truth ended up better than fiction.

We met at a neighborhood holiday party, at the local watering hole at the end of the street. He approached me first. I admit that I actually swooned a little bit when he mentioned that he has every Bob Dylan album ever, and was currently carrying Vonnegut around in his pocket to read at work. When I showed him my cell phone wallpaper from when I met Eddie Vedder, he didn't even need an explanation as to who that was. We talked all night and exchanged phone numbers with each other, and a few other neighbors, to plan some future get-togethers.

The holidays arrived with the usual madness, so texting began, followed by some lengthy phone calls with promises of meeting in person again soon. It took a few weeks, but by mid-January we had a movie night scheduled. This was followed a couple of days later by an evening of music, food, drinks, and talking literally all night long, into the next day.

Another night out included more music, and the first meeting of some friends of mine, who were shocked that we were possibly not dating. After all, who has such conversations in their mid-30s? "Do you like me? Check yes or no!" Friends were starting to harass me about when the first kiss was going to finally happen.

Then came the supposed Snowpacolypse and another movie night. I stayed until 1:30 a.m. I got up at 6:30 the next day, only to see that we finally had a snow day, and went back to bed until 11:30. He still had to work. I felt bad having kept him up so late, so I offered to cook him dinner. I had to take the ingredients over to his house, but we ended up making dinner together. After another evening of watching TV and talking, it was finally time for me to go home.

He is quite the gentleman, always holding the door open and taking care of my needs first. So, he offered to go out and clean off my car, as it was currently buried under a couple of inches of snow from the next wave of the storm. I followed him out to start it. The alternative rock station was blasting, and we could just barely hear it. Some random song was on as we embraced, thanking each other for dinner and all the kind little things we had done for each other over the last day. We held onto each other, breathing each other in, and commenting on how comfortable it would be to just fall asleep there, interlocked in the snow. I felt like we were in a snow globe, as the flakes were large and fluffy, falling from a pink sky.

I heard the telltale opening chords to Pearl Jam, and quickly commented, as a true fan knows her muse inside and out. I quickly realized it was "Hail Hail," which is the second track on No Code, and one of my favorite songs. The chorus says, "Hail hail the lucky ones, I refer to those in love, yeah." It was at that moment that the embrace broke up, he looked down at me, and started to move in. I filled the gap, and there it was. The first kiss. And it was to Pearl Jam.

To those who know me and who are fans of Pearl Jam, it almost seemed to good to be true. I felt like I could not write a more perfect scenario for a first kiss. The setting combined with the music was breathtaking and worthy of goosebumps to those who heard the tale. I am also hoping that a first kiss set to the sounds of Pearl Jam is a sign from the Universe that this one is a keeper.