How It All Began... and then some!

When George and I first met, it was love at first sight.... for him! I was fresh out of Air Force Basic Military training, and the single parent of a one year old who depended solely on me for food, clothing and shelter. After months of unsuccessfully attempting to find a job after the military, I decided my own business was the only solution. I started with insurance. The course was 6 days long, it cost me $700, but I was told the investment would be well worth it. George walked in the fourth day, late (which I have now learned is his unfortunate character flaw). He had on a full motorcycle suit (okay so I was watching, but how many black men wear a full motorcycle suit in Anaheim, CA?) and a scarf still tied to his head with his helmet under one arm. I purposely positioned myself in the classroom farthest away from the entrance, so no one would sit next to me to try to talk to me. He stood in the door (as I silently chanted, "don't sit next to me, don't sit next to me.") and looked in my direction and walked entirely across the classroom in front of the instructor and class and sat in the empty seat next to me at a table that only sat two people. As he sat his helmet on the table, I was not impressed by his confidence at all, not to mention I was on a mission to pass the insurance test the first time only, as I needed to work ASAP because my savings was quickly being depleted. He looked me up and down, and then let out a sort of cave man grunt of approval which totally turned my stomach sideways. Over the course of the day he struck up conversation.

I had already made a decision in my mind if he asked me for my number or if I was dating someone that I would not give it to him. I detest lack of creativity, it to me is a sign of weakness and if you cannot figure a simple way to reinvent the common pick-up line, you aren't "man enough" to claim my phone number. As a single mom, I had no time in my schedule for dating. He must have heard my silent ramblings because on the second day, he asked if I liked motorcycle riding and perhaps he could take me sometime. He catered to the "tomboy" in me, low blow, but he won the number for cool points. I made him wait the last day of class to get the number, because I wanted no phone calls or distractions during the course of my class. The last day at 8 am, I didn't expect George to be there, he was late every morning. But 10 am rolled around, then 11 am, then 12 noon and no George. I thought to myself, that is why he didn't need my number because he wasn't serious. 12:30 pm, he comes strolling in. A few of the other women in the class were impressed by his, what I now call "super suit" (motorcycle suit) and his confident walk like he ruled the world, so they asked him where he had been. Apparently his motorcycle went dead so he pushed it for several miles in attempt to make it to class to get my number. When that got old, he took the battery out, walked to Autozone to have it charged, walked back to the bike to put the part back in, then rode the bike the remaining way to class. Okay so it's starting to sound like a real love story right? I give him my number (it was years later he admitted to the great details involved with getting to class that day) and we began our phone relationship. I was very protective of Dorian, and I had a new business to start up. Not to mention I had finally had the courage to stop forcing a relationship between Dorian biological DNA donor and Dorian, and didn't want to get into anything at the moment. I told George he had two things counting against him, one he was from the south, which meant he would want me to cook a lot, and two he was a Marine, which meant he was crazy.

Five years later and I was right about both things. When he finally met Dorian, they're relationship grew quicker than George and I. Dorian had always slept through the night, and whenever George was around and it was late, he'd wake up, and George would always go into his room and rub his back and kiss him back to sleep (he would never admit to it in public, but I would stand at the door and watch him when he didn't know I was there.) George is the only father Dorian knows and the only one he cares about. George insisted on letting him know (even though he legally adopted Dorian and changed his last name), but Dorian just shrugged it off, and said okay whatever and continued at whatever task he was working on.

We decided to have our wedding on our four year anniversary. George's dream was to marry someone after dating for only 4 years, my desire was to only date for 2 years, because realistically if your eyes are wide open, you should know within 1 year the next year should be spent planning. At 2 years, I was certainly not ready. Although I loved George, I was so scared to commit I kept looking for reasons to run. So I said okay, how about year 3, let's compromise and split the difference. 3 years rolled around quick, I was still gun shy, but Dorian was 4 and what was I really waiting on. So one morning a few months after our 3rd year anniversary we woke up one morning, looked at each other and said "today, yeah let's do it." Dressed in jeans and T-shirts with my best friend as our witness and our five year old telling us (quoting a Tyler Perry movie he had recently seen) "don't do it, don't do it" while the county clerked couldn't stop laughing, we did it. We said I do, and told no one! Not because we didn't want them to share in the moment, but because the moment became an intimate treasure between us and our commitment to one another before God. We later shared during our wedding day, as that was the celebration we wanted everyone to be involved.

We are amazingly private people about our businesses and private life, but if I don't talk to you, my readers, who else can I share with? I find that some information that is shared can be useful to helping others, if not therapy for the writers soul. There is nothing ordinary about life, it's just the lenses you are looking through to view it. If things are fuzzy and dull, clean the lenses and enjoy the brilliant colors and amazing moments!