Dear John

My absolute favorite author is Nicholas Sparks. As soon as I know that he has a book coming out, I pre-order it and count the days until it is available. My favorite by far is Dear John. I fell in love with this book from the minute I opened to page one. At this time, I had never met my hubby and had no real connection to the military but the love story between John and Savannah and the reality of war and relationships just really got to me.

I love this book so much that I reread it every year. Once I met my hubby I realized how much the story parallels our own love story. M and I had met through his sister but technically online while he was still in NC and I was in WI. Once he came up to WI on leave it was only about two weeks that we spent together but as Savannah says in the movie, two weeks was all it took. I knew M was the one for me and I knew that to be with him our relationship would have to take a back burner to the military. It wasn't ideal in any way but I knew that we were meant to be together and I would do whatever it took to make sure we made it through whatever the military threw our way. Five months after we met we were married and a month after our wedding, M deployed. I was in no way prepared for this deployment and things were rough.

Going back and rereading Dear John, I still have conflicting feelings about Savannah, but I understand how hard it is to be separated from the one you love, the constant fear and worry about whether or not they are safe, counting down the days until they are home and the sadness when things change between a couple during the months away. Everytime I read this book I somehow think that they will end up together and am always sad that the ending is different than the one I expected.

I found out this book was being made into a movie about a year ago and have been anxiously awaiting it's release date. I had planned on going to see it on my bday with the hubby but since he will probably be gone by then I had set my mind to the fact that I would see it with my girlfriends.

Yesterday night, M was browsing the internet and we saw that Hollywood is holding an advanced screening on Jan 23rd at the base the hubs and I are stationed at!!! There are 700 tickets available for military id holders. I am checking online hourly to see if they have been released yet. Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried will be there along with the cast and I am dying to go. I love the two actors they chose to portray John and Savannah and I cannot wait to see my favorite book acted out on screen

And the nerd in me wants to run right out and by the book with the movie cover, even though I already have a copy of Dear John when it first came out!! Keep your fingers crossed that I get tickets!!!