“It Was Seventeen Years Ago Today...”

It was November 10, 2006. I was working in the Housewares department of Macy's in Neshaminy Mall. On my lunch break, I walked down to the movie theater and bought two tickets for the movie Borat to prepare for what I hoped would be a first date that night. I had plans for a date with this girl earlier in the week but she got “called into work”. Little did I know that her anxiety about going on a first date was so bad that she went into to work to avoid it. After I got the tickets, I called her and told her I bought the tickets. Had I not already bought the tickets, she admitted, she would have backed out again, but she felt bad that I had already put the money out. She didn't think of the fact that I could have returned them, but I digress since it worked out in my favor.

I picked her up in her very boushy fur coat and took her to dinner at Manny Browns' in the mall just outside of the theater. Our conversation was so much fun that we lost track of time and were cutting it close to the movie's showtime. Borat was so popular that by the time I paid for dinner and we got into the theater, the only seats left were dead-center, front-row. The movie was hysterical! Imagine my total embarrassment when Borat and his producer get into an on-screen brawl while COMPLETELY NAKED. Again, dead-center, front-row. I would have NEVER taken a first date to see that.

Despite the inappropriate choice of movie, that became my LAST first date. Here we are seventeen years later to the date, and I am just as taken with her now as I was that night. That night, I joined a team that was already in the works and together we grew that team into a force to be reckon with. We have seen relationships come and go, marriages that didn't last, businesses close; we have lived through historical events, life beginning for babies of our friends, and we've lost loved ones. We have seen a lot of things that normally would break people apart. Yet, here we are, we've stood together through it all, we became each other's strength in our times of need. We have done it all together, side by side, hand in hand.

Just to think that eighteen years ago, I was in such a bad place mentally, I was so lonely, I prayed to God to send me someone. When Kelly got into my car seventeen years ago, not only was she the answer to my prayers, she far exceeded my dreams. She is JUST the thing I needed in my life to keep me balanced, to walk with me on that fine line between logic and insanity. I truly am absolutely blessed!

Until next time,

Thanks for reading and Enjoy Yourself!

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