Whoops

I have to laugh. The joy of stirring up controversy. I get that from my Paternal Grandmother. She was a piece of work. She put my dad in boarding school as a small child and left him there for 12 years, so she could go off into the world and do her thing. I wrote about an idyllic childhood. Well, you are not going to get me to expose all the skeletons in the family closet. Lets just say there are advantages to having to wear thick rose tinted glasses. You can take a lemon and be all sour, or add a Little sugar and make a delightful glass of lemonade.

I do like a good Margarita. Tom met me at Talacqui Paci's in down town Seattle. I had been told by my then roommates that an old friend was coming to town for his 30th birthday and they would like me to show him around town. We lived on Frat row by the University of Washington. That weekend I was on crutches for a sprained ankle. Tom and I limped that hilly campus. It was the first time I had ever been on campus in the 3 years of living in the area.

My old roommate was working on her Masters and PHD, but I had never gone. Looking back I am sure Tom could have cared less about the UW, especially knowing now where his heart really lies, Go Beavs.

But what really impressed me was when he allowed himself to be blindfolded and lay his head backwards on the bar of that Mexican restaurant, while the bartender poured an unknown fluid down his throat. It was only tapioca pudding, but he didn't know that, all to impress a girl. Its the way they celebrate birthdays at this particular spot. He knew all my friends, and was such a gentleman. He held the door for me and my crutches. When we went out for Italian on another occasion, he asked around the table if anyone minded if he ordered veal. All the women melted, he was so sensitive. It was a great first impression. When he turns those brown eyes with the little wrinkles in the corners on you full, they melt the harshest facade.

It was his perseverance though that was most impressive. He would drive from Eugene to Seattle on the weekends. We weren't even officially going out. He was just coming up to visit his friends, my housemates. For six months he did that drive. Finally at Christmas, my step dad said "No guy in his right mind drives all the way to Seattle to see old buddies every weekend, Honey. " Oh.

So, we officially started dating in January. The next October, we and many of our friends were planning a trip to Cozumel. He had been planning to propose to me romantically on the beach. But I was four hours late meeting him at a restaurant in Portland. We were coming in from Seattle to Portland to fly out. My ride made a few detours. This was all before cell phones. Tom held the table at Pazzos restaurant during a busy Friday night for hours. He was just leaving when we pulled up. He was not in the best of moods. We all trooped back into the restaurant and spent the evening putting him in a better mood.

He proposed to me driving back to the Marriot hotel that night. Well, it was kind of a proposal. " If I asked you to marry me would you say Yes?" I responded, "If you were asking me, I would probably say yes." Any man with that much tolerance and patience and that cute is a keeper. He has staying power for the long haul. Thick or thin, sickness and health, rich or poor. The whole real deal.


The next day we caught the plane to Cozumel. So, we always say he proposed on the trip to Cozumel. Sounds so much more romantic than at a stop light in down town Portland two sheets to the wind. He is still as cute now with those puppy dog eyes as he was at 30. I have given him a whole head of grey hair and a few more wrinkles, but he is still such a gentleman holding the door for me, as long as I wear nylons and a skirt.

That was good memories!!!