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- Mar 26, 2002
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And what attracted you to them? What made you decide to have a long term relationship with them?
I have really enjoyed the responses to my thread " Why do you live where you do?" A lot of people, who don't post much responded and I feel like I got to know them and a few of the "regulars" even better.
I have the advantage of going first.
I had gone through a devastating divorce and was hitting the high end singles scene. "Who’s Who," "Black Tie," and "Serendipity." Being a businessman I thought that it would be good to have a business woman for a wife.
I began to see why these women were single, They seemed to fall into several categories:
Top level executive -- and too busy for any social life.
Widowed -- and comparing every man to that deceased saint they were married to for 25 years. You cant win that one.
Divorced and hungry -- I was at a party at a woman's palatial home, easily worth a million dollars. The hostess who was about 55 (my age at the time) was really letting a good friend of mine know she was interested. He was cool to her. I got him aside and asked him why he was not responding.
He said, "She seems nice enough, but look at this house! Her husband divorced her. He would rather have his freedom even if he had to give her this house to get free. What kind of b*tch must she REALLY be?"
Hmm, good point.
I was considering three possible women.
Joan -- owns some of the largest cemeteries in Atlanta. Over a hundred acres. "People are dying to meet me and I am the last person to let you down."
Jean -- her dead husband invented the "Hummingbird Fish Finder" and left her with all the royalties. She was "Politically active and intelligent."
Regina -- Brazilian Consul General. Spoke seven languages. Was one of the top Brazilian authors. Two PhD degrees, etc, etc. Wanted me to go to some of the Brazil Inca spots. One of the languages she spoke was the Indian dialect of the people inhabiting one of these ruins and area.
These women sounded more interesting than they really were. I was trying to make myself like them, but it really was not working. If I had to TRY, it did not make sense for a long-term relationship.
Then the apartment in my house became available. I stuck a flyer on the phone pole in front of my house.
Anne came knocking on my door, her soon-to-be ex-husband with her. This a$$hole was trying to help her find an apartment so he could be take over the home they had bought. I remember Anne filling out the apartment application on my dining room table. She looked too young for me. I looked at her application better. Hmm, only four years younger than me. I like women around my age, we can talk about similar events, music groups, hippies, etc.
She was also about 35 pounds overweight.
Soon Anne was living in the terrace level apartment under my house. Nice place with windows fronting on a private patio. She called herself "Anne from Down-under."
She asked my advice on a real estate matter. Her ex was trying to get her to sign over her interest in her home for next to nothing. I went into full-blown mode and got her five times what he was offering her. He was leaving Anne for his tennis partner and wanted to get divorced ASAP.
So Anne and I would talk. Sometimes about my love life (she did not have one) and sometimes about everything else.
One day we were building a pond. I noticed that she had lost the extra poundage. When she bent over I "called upon the Name of the Lord!" I got interested for all the right reasons!
She was chattering about "always wanting to buy real estate" and it suddenly hit me. Here was a good, solid (now slim) woman who was interested in real estate, like me. We both grew up in similar small towns. We have similar values. AND I was sure that she was not just trying to "land me" so she could have a good life without working. She was honest. She had time to be with me.
I THEN realized that I was standing next to the perfect woman for me. That I was really in love. So we got exclusive for about six months and got married. I have never regretted it.
Never.
So what brought you and yours together?
I have really enjoyed the responses to my thread " Why do you live where you do?" A lot of people, who don't post much responded and I feel like I got to know them and a few of the "regulars" even better.
I have the advantage of going first.
I had gone through a devastating divorce and was hitting the high end singles scene. "Who’s Who," "Black Tie," and "Serendipity." Being a businessman I thought that it would be good to have a business woman for a wife.
I began to see why these women were single, They seemed to fall into several categories:
Top level executive -- and too busy for any social life.
Widowed -- and comparing every man to that deceased saint they were married to for 25 years. You cant win that one.
Divorced and hungry -- I was at a party at a woman's palatial home, easily worth a million dollars. The hostess who was about 55 (my age at the time) was really letting a good friend of mine know she was interested. He was cool to her. I got him aside and asked him why he was not responding.
He said, "She seems nice enough, but look at this house! Her husband divorced her. He would rather have his freedom even if he had to give her this house to get free. What kind of b*tch must she REALLY be?"
Hmm, good point.
I was considering three possible women.
Joan -- owns some of the largest cemeteries in Atlanta. Over a hundred acres. "People are dying to meet me and I am the last person to let you down."
Jean -- her dead husband invented the "Hummingbird Fish Finder" and left her with all the royalties. She was "Politically active and intelligent."
Regina -- Brazilian Consul General. Spoke seven languages. Was one of the top Brazilian authors. Two PhD degrees, etc, etc. Wanted me to go to some of the Brazil Inca spots. One of the languages she spoke was the Indian dialect of the people inhabiting one of these ruins and area.
These women sounded more interesting than they really were. I was trying to make myself like them, but it really was not working. If I had to TRY, it did not make sense for a long-term relationship.
Then the apartment in my house became available. I stuck a flyer on the phone pole in front of my house.
Anne came knocking on my door, her soon-to-be ex-husband with her. This a$$hole was trying to help her find an apartment so he could be take over the home they had bought. I remember Anne filling out the apartment application on my dining room table. She looked too young for me. I looked at her application better. Hmm, only four years younger than me. I like women around my age, we can talk about similar events, music groups, hippies, etc.
She was also about 35 pounds overweight.
Soon Anne was living in the terrace level apartment under my house. Nice place with windows fronting on a private patio. She called herself "Anne from Down-under."
She asked my advice on a real estate matter. Her ex was trying to get her to sign over her interest in her home for next to nothing. I went into full-blown mode and got her five times what he was offering her. He was leaving Anne for his tennis partner and wanted to get divorced ASAP.
So Anne and I would talk. Sometimes about my love life (she did not have one) and sometimes about everything else.
One day we were building a pond. I noticed that she had lost the extra poundage. When she bent over I "called upon the Name of the Lord!" I got interested for all the right reasons!
She was chattering about "always wanting to buy real estate" and it suddenly hit me. Here was a good, solid (now slim) woman who was interested in real estate, like me. We both grew up in similar small towns. We have similar values. AND I was sure that she was not just trying to "land me" so she could have a good life without working. She was honest. She had time to be with me.
I THEN realized that I was standing next to the perfect woman for me. That I was really in love. So we got exclusive for about six months and got married. I have never regretted it.
Never.
So what brought you and yours together?
). However, my friend did not put 2 and 2 together and was interested in her himself. This turned out not to be a big deal as he had an interest in every girl in our class. He became the messenger between us. It wasn't too much longer and we were "going together". I still remember that bean pole of a girl standing there at my locker our very first day together. She was wearing a blue dress. It set off the blue and gold in her Athena-gray eyes behind the glare off her wire-frame glasses that dipped a little too low on her nose
). The preps would take verbal stabs at me when the hyenas were in a group, but once confronted they would scatter. Every teacher loved me. I couldn't be touched and they knew it. So, Brenna and I were everyone's favorite odd couple. Jock and nerd completing each other perfectly. Over the next several years we shared each other's joys and sorrows. We saw the death of her grandparents, the cancer scare with her father, and my parents ugly divorce. We held each other up, and our feelings only grew stronger. 
In '03 we wrapped up under-grad, and she went on to grad school and then her specialist degree (the highest degree you can earn at Western). Me? I moved back home to build a nest. I took my waiting spot in the family business. Worked hard, saved money.
I replied "I'd kinda like to get to know her first." He got a big smile on his face, reached up and put a hand on my shoulder, said "You're gonna do alright".
