A Special Note on Valentine's # 8

Happy Valentines Day Fellow Toastmasters.

Tonight I brought my lucky letter.  More about that later.  I'd like to journey back with you four years into my past.  Hold on to your britches, my life was a mindless, meandering, but magical roller coaster!  In January 2009, I was going on dates at least twice a week with different guys each night.  My New Years goal was to date anyone who said yes.  I was valiantly looking for the one...the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

I had had enough of being alone.  Coming home to an empty apartment each night after a long day of teaching 25 kids that were not your own was not contentment.  So I asked out anyone I thought was worthy of my time and was also available.

There was the guy who couldn't commit.  The one with the squirrely tongue. The long-distant close friend who only called for his weekly self-esteem boost.  Is that enough horror for you?

Fine here are some more.  The gymnast that turned out to be a little too flexible, the blond babe that dragged me through the relationship mud, and oh ya...the handsy cop who hadn't ever been told no.

Well after a few dates with "these people" you can imagine the frustration I felt.

But don't worry, my trusty letter helped me make it through. We're almost to that part...Is the suspense killing you?  Good.  By Valentine's Day, I was pooped.  Not one 1st date had become a 2nd, mostly because I was just dating a bunch of weirdos.  So sitting in my room on Valentine's night was just what I needed to recuperate.  The buffet of bad choices of men had soured my appetite for too long.  Why go out to see couples holding hands, stealing kisses in dark shady places on the sidewalk. I had been doing that for months and it wasn't working. So I popped a good video into my trusty old VCR (Never out of style btw) and settled in for the night.  The night was young and I had a whole box of old movies to re-watch.

I love to watch a good movie.  One that you've seen a hundred times and still are able to laugh, cry, and reflect at all the right moments.  But I just felt so restless inside after a few minutes of watching.  I wanted to be with people, not in this dark and dank basement with prehistoric VHS tapes. If the menu did not look appealing, maybe I needed to try a new restaurant   

My phone vibrated with a text.  An invitation to go out.  To a Single-Awareness party.  Well, not the most award winning party, but maybe their would be new specials on tonight's menu. 

Before I left that night to attend this Single-Awareness party, I resolved to write my future husband a letter and then go and have a good time with people I had never met before.  Yay...we made it to the letter.  

To my other half:

Life has taken many tosses and turns and I sometimes wonder where you have been and what's taking so much of your time.  Sometimes I wonder why God made me so passionate about finding the right one for me.  It seems to occupy my thoughts constantly.  Even on my mission I struggled with that emptiness that kept grinding inside of me...like I haven't felt whole for years.  My guess is our love must have been pretty strong before we came and sometimes we yearn to be together again...I at least do.

It's Valentines Day today.  It's my favorite holiday and yet there is always a sadness that it will never be complete without you.

I also wrote in this letter many promises and wishes I had for our future life together.  I even told him when he gets fat, bald, and ugly that I would still love him anyway...luckily my eyesight would be also be failing.

I sealed up my letter and put it in a special place.  I planned to show my husband on our wedding night just how much he was thought of.  

I went to the party and right away I started to have a fun night.  What a good decision to get up and go.   As far as the menu was concerned, there was a little bit of oodling...but mostly I just being around normal people, and not weirdos on my favorite day of the year. Who would have thought that that very night, I would meet my one and only?  I met him on the night my mind and heart had given up and my will to be around friends was stronger than trying to find the one.  

Fred Rabe entered my life at that party, and even though I thought he looked kind of dorky, and had really nerdy friends, he was the nicest guy I had ever met.  Like turned into love and as I spent more and more time with him, I realized what I had been missing all of those years.  He has turned out to be everything I needed and more.  Gone are the crappy days of dating people that are just not for me. Gone are the days of coming home each night to an empty house.  He feels my soul with goodness and makes me better in ways I could imagine.  I did give this letter to him on our wedding night and currently we are working on our forever after.  

Mr. Toastmaster