Now and then, I get the great honor of bragging about my wife. (I’ll do it again in about two weeks…)

This time, it’s a DMN story set to run in this morning’s edition (Feb 15) . A reporter and photog followed Dennise and her staff around for the day, working the angle of what Valentine’s Day is like in the “divorce court.” It’s a nice idea, and nicely written. And you can read it here.

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Yes, I’m the un-named husband who made the mix tape for Judge Garcia. I even learned Tish Hinojosa’s “Who Showed You the way to My Heart” in Spanish. (Called a friend for the exact translation from the record…) I believe the other songs were JT’s “Something in the Way She Moves,” and Fogelberg’s “Believe in Me.”

One correction to the story: while Dennise and I met her senior year in college, we didn’t start dating until the summer afterwards. She had another boyfriend all that year, and we were coworkers to boot. Dennise and I were a part of a great RA staff during what was her last year as an undergraduate and my last year in seminary. I was the Hall Director and Dennise was one of my ten “RAs.” I was on four different RA staffs in my my years at SMU. But I don’t keep up with any of the others like I do that bunch. Maybe it was because it was our last year, but I think it’s really because it was a special group. Rep. Rafael Anchia was on that staff, along with our good friends, Chris, Carolyn, Shannon, and five others. We still see many of them to greater and lesser extents.

Since the story speaks of love and hate, I should confess that Dennise didn’t like me at first. Actually, it would be more honest to say that she hated my guts. She thought I was too cheery, and too forgetful.

I was. To some, I am still too much of both.

But at least I grew on her, and by the end of the year all of us were fast friends. Soon after, several things happened in quick succession. First, instead of being sent to away to a church far away, I was sent about 500 feet, across the parking lot to Highland Park. (Who woulda thunk it?) Then, instead of heading to UT to be with that long-distance boyfriend, they broke up, and Dennise stayed in town to go to SMU Law instead. (Who woulda thunk it?)

So, we kept in touch. We’d go to movies, or get pizza and watch TV at my swanky new apartment off of Skillman and Northwest Hwy. Our first “date” wasn’t even really a date to begin with. It was just two friends going off to see a movie: the deeply romantic film, “Total Recall,” with Arnold Schwartzenegger. (See, it couldn’t have been a date. Who in their right mind would pick that for a first date?)

Somewhere during that evening (after the film…) we looked at each other in a whole new way, sparks flew, and the rest became our history.

The best thing about our early romance is that we’d been good friends beforehand for so long already. We knew each other…our likes and dislikes.

In retrospect, it’s such a sneaky, covert, way to do it. You’re caught by love before you even know what hit you. You’re “just friends,” and so you don’t bother to strap on the the usual heavy-duty dating-armor. You’re “just friends,” and so you learn things about the other that it would take months to learn about a new lover.

And then, boom. One day it happens, and you realize you’re more than friends. And then one day it’s fifteen years later, you’ve got a nine-year-old kid who’s the greatest kid in the world, and a wonderful wife who’s also a judge, and who gets written up by the DMN telling stories about your first Valentine’s Day.

Happy Valentine’s Day, D.

I still don’t quite know who showed you the way to my heart.

But I thank God every day that you found it.