1987-2010

23 years ago, I decided to do something completely out of the ordinary with my life.

I started dating.

And being true to form, since I had no clue on how to approach the opposite sex, mother dearest took the bull by the horns and set me up on a blind date with a friend's daughter.

And where did mother dearest meet her friend?

At bingo.

And where did I meet my blind date?

At bingo.

Yes, at bingo.

From that first awkward meeting, we chose to have another awkward meeting, in the form of a non-chaperoned date.

Went to a movie and dinner.

No idea what the movie was, but we had dinner at a long since closed Denny's. Come to think of it, that movie theater closed as well.

Anyways, one thing lead to another, and by the spring of 1988, we were sharing an apartment with my best friend in New Britain. Prior to moving in the spring of 1988, I popped a surprise on my lady love Christmas morning, by proposing.

She accepted.

One and half years later, we were married.

And just like that first date, so did the wedding take a turn for the truly weird.

Originally, it was supposed to be an outdoor wedding at Mill Pond park, at the waterfalls (can I get an AWWWWWWWWHHHHHHH from everyone?). The back up plan, just in case that Mother Nature decided to watch a weepy soap opera, was to have it at the church in New Britain. Guess what peoples? Mother Nature chose to watch a wickedly weepy soap opera all that week, so we had our wedding in New Britain.

Did I mention that we had to park 3/4 of mile away from the church because of a festival called "Main Street USA" was being held on that very same day at the very same time frame as the wedding, which basically closed the downtown area?

Did I mention that I forgot to grab the corsages, which were sitting in a fridge, at home, which was located some five miles away from the church? And that I had to borrow my best man's car to go and retrieve said flowers?

Did I mention that for all the headaches that were suffered on the day of the wedding, the wedding itself went off without a hitch?

However, I will mention that some two decades later, through all the peaks and valleys, two children some eight years apart, four address changes involving three towns, fifteen different cars, five parakeets, two cats, one cockatiel, three gerbils and enough job stress that would make any other sane person crack under the pressure, I am very glad to have that young lady (who is three years older than yours truly) at my side.

I love my wife to pieces, having spent as of today, 21 years in chaotic wedded bliss.

And I wouldn't have it any other way.