In the spring of 2003 two important things happened: I
graduated from college and made the decision to attend Syracuse to earn a
masters. At the advice of my guidance
counselor I chose Syracuse over American University and Boston University, a
choice that led me to the love of my live and events I could never have
imagined.
That winter I met this guy….online. This was before meeting people online was
normal. We hit it off and then one day
he asked if we should meet. Before
leaving, I made sure people knew where I was going and would call to check on
me, off I went. I knocked on the door
and this extremely tall guy wearing yellow warm up pants (you know, the kind
that unzip at the knee) and a faded Syracuse basketball T-shirt answered the
door. Unimpressive. We watched Bull Durham,
drank Yuengling and talked late into the night.
Two years later I married that guy.
After grad school, I moved back to California, driving 3,000
miles with my then boyfriend through about 10 states in less than four days. If
that isn’t a test of compatibility, then I don’t know what is. We visited such national treasures as Little
America, WY (home of the 10¢ soft serve and the only bathroom for 400
miles), a monument erected in honor of Buffalo Bill Cody and a classic car road
race pit stop in Elko, NV. We
arrived in California the day before the Fourth of July. The following day we took the ferry to Pac
Bell park on a beautiful sunny day in San Francisco to watch the A’s play the
Giants. I don’t remember if the A’s won
or not, I just remember being very happy.
Shortly thereafter we got jobs, there was a proposal, and a
wedding. We moved into our first
apartment in Oakland. I remember a
friend from grad school recommending to me that I don’t get killed when I told
her we were moving to Oakland, advice heeded.
We stayed in Oakland for three years which included many trips to the
farmers market and Colonial Donuts on Saturdays, a tiny Mexican restaurant on
the other side of Lake Merritt for the best mole I have ever had and the
discovery of Kamakura in Alameda, still my favorite sushi place.
In May of 2008 as we sat by the pool at a resort in the
Dominican Republic listening to Bocelli, we started to talk about baby names
for when we had kids; Carol Ann if we had a girl, Connor James if it was a
boy. This was of course after my husband
had only half-jokingly threw out George Washington as an option. Nope. A year later, we brought beautiful Carol Ann
home from the hospital.
After I got pregnant, we looked around our little apartment
and tried to figure out how we could make it work with a baby. We couldn’t.
We weighed the merits of being closer to work, versus closer to family.
Proximity toamily was the right choice.
We bought a house near my parents.
At the time I couldn’t possibly imagine how we would fill it. Now, I sometimes wonder if we shouldn’t have
perhaps got a bigger house. A few years
later we brought Brianna Michelle home from the hospital to complete our
family.
The
last ten years have brought me as far north as Hadrian’s Wall and as far south
as the jungles of the Dominican Republic.
I have changed my name, brought two amazing people into the world and
hopefully have made a positive difference. I can only hope that the next ten years
are as blessed as the last and can’t wait to see what happens next.
You are right, it was a miracle that you made it through the road trip cross country! Could you do it now?? Hehe. - Michele
ReplyDeleteWell done! Great Pic of the family. It's hard to believe you were as little and cute ast the babes you are holding!
ReplyDeleteKathleen
You have a beautiful family and you should be very proud of all you have accomplished in the last ten years!!! Darlene
ReplyDelete