REMEMBERING BACK TO THAT DAY

After all these years, we still fondly remember back to that day.

It started like any other Wednesday. I'd go to work as a paralegal at a local law firm and then meet up with a girlfriend after work. It was a good time to catch up with our lives, our jobs and our mostly non-existent love lives. The Bristol on the Plaza was the usual meeting place on Wednesdays, only because that was the day they offered oysters on the half-shell for a nickel-a-piece during happy hour, and my friend loved oysters on the half-shell. And, they poured my favorite - a really great Merlot. It didn't hurt that the Bristol was also an upscale place to meet someone that could possibly improve our love lives.

But this Wednesday was not like any other. The bar at the Bristol was more crowded than usual and was standing room only which left us trying to balance glasses of wine, plates of hors d'oeuvres and, of course, our purses.

Three gentlemen who must have arrived early enough to grab a nearby table had noticed our balancing act and politely offered us a corner of their table in case we wanted to set something down.

As the evening progressed, so did the small talk between the five of us. They were three salesmen in town for national corporate meetings, two of whom I learned were actually from my original hometown. It helped the conversation that we knew people and places in common. Their story that they were all single turned out to be true. The third guy, Larry was quieter, more laid back. (They say those are the ones you have to watch out for.)

How do we tell our story today? When people ask how we met, he says he picked me up in a bar. I remember it differently.

We did exchange phone numbers that evening but it took him a whole week to call me for our first date. We had a great evening of a nice dinner at my favorite restaurant, good conversation and much laughter.

We had our second date five years (yes, I said five years) later - and it was only 1,200 miles away from the first encounter. I'm still not sure why it took him five more years to call me again. I had just moved across the country to start a new job one week earlier and we had mutual friends that lived in my new city. They called me and asked if I remembered that guy, Larry, who was planning to visit them for a few days, and would I be interested in getting together with them to maybe play some golf, have dinner or something. Sure, why not, I'd said. Since I had only lived there for one week, I didn't know anyone else and didn't have anything better to do, I'd said. We went through a lot of Merlot that week.

We had a great time for the three days that he was visiting. His plan was to then visit other friends in a near-by city. He called the same evening after he got there and asked me to drive down the next morning with the intention of meeting his other friends. "No," I said, "I'm not driving for two hours." The next day the invitation was repeated. Again, thanks, but no, I wasn't going to drive for two hours to meet up with him and his friends. Day three, same invitation. "Okay," I'd said. He tells people that I was just playing hard to get. We had a great time hanging out, dining and sight-seeing. And, drinking more Merlot.

For the next two years we dated long-distance, still living 1,200 miles apart. Since I'd moved to a warmer climate, he took advantage of visiting me a lot during the winters. His sense of humor matched mine and it didn't take us long to look forward to the times we could get together. I guessed that maybe he really did want to be with me instead of looking for respite from the cold Midwestern winters when he asked me to marry him and move back to my old city. It took me awhile to make that decision and say yes since my goal had initially been to escape the cold weather. But again, with more Merlot, here we are thirty-three years later, and I still have not rgretted the decision.

He promised me life would not be dull. So far, he has kept that promise. And, we are till laughing together.