Can You Hear Me Now?

I have been thinking lately about my Good Luck Love Vibe. I must have one (and it works on everybody except me). I have been around a lot of people when they first met, that have ended up in love and wedded bliss and the whole nine yards. The first couple that comes to mind are my good friends Paul and Connie that, although I wasn’t around them when they first met, (that was in elementary school), I am responsible for first getting them together. There was a good sized group of us that hung out around that time, and I even went out on a date with Paul first. But there was nothing there (except respect and admiration for the great guy that he is, but I felt no attraction whatsoever, and I was kicking myself because he is GORGEOUS and I don’t know what was wrong with me!!!). It wasn’t meant to be though, because then it dawned on me that him and Connie were going to get married, although they weren’t aware of it yet and had never even been on a date. I changed all that. 12 years later they have been married forever and have 3 kids. They thank me when things are good, and blame me when things aren’t so good. Heh.

There’s even my mom and Step dad, Bob. I loooove this story, ha ha ha!! Bob was a cab driver, and he picked up my mom one day to take her to a doctor appointment. He was smitten immediately, but my mom, newly separated from my dad and not looking for anything, was oblivious. The next time she called a cab, Bob heard her address (this was back in the days when it was all done over radio) and intercepted the trip. Heh. He was quite persistent with my mom, wanting to go for lunch, for coffee, etc. but she kept refusing. Finally one day he was driving her home from an appointment and as they pulled up to our building, along I came walking up the street from the drycleaners. My mom rolled down the window and said “that’s my daughter”. I stopped and talked to them, knowing this was the “crazy cab driver” my mom had mentioned a couple times before. I liked him immediately and noticing my mom had a newly purchased bottle of wine in her hand, I asked Bob “aren’t you coming in for a glass of wine?” Mom was a little stuck at that moment. Ha ha! Bob said “sure” and we all went up to the apartment. Bob and I talked about music and Duran Duran (he let me show him alllll the posters in my bedroom… I was 16, people!) and go on and on and on about them. After he left, I told my mom she wasn’t allowed to date anyone else ever again. So there. Mom still thought it was too soon to start a new relationship or anything, and insisted she only liked him as a friend. But I was determined (as was Bob). One night when Bob dropped mom off again (I think intercepting her cab trips was a very regular occurrence for him now), he offered to drop by later when he was done work. Mom said no, she would be in bed early, there was no point. He insisted. He asked what time she was going to bed, and she said by 10:00 p.m. He said he would try to be there by 9:30. She said if the lights were off she was in bed, so not to come up if it was dark. She made the mistake of telling me she told him that, too. So when she went to bed early and Bob wasn’t there yet, she turned off all the lights. I then proceeded to go around the apartment and turn them all back on after she closed her bedroom door (I’m such a brat! Hee hee). So Bob arrived, saw the lights on, and came upstairs. I let him in, but of course mom was in bed. He mixed her a drink and brought it to her in bed. She said “I can’t drink that lying down, I need a straw!” So Bob went to get a straw, but unable to find one, he put a turkey baster in the glass and brought her that. He figured with her big mouth a baster wouldn’t pose a problem. Ha ha ha ha 20 years later they are still together and mom says “he is still the sweetest man alive”.

Then there was that night about… oh, 9 years ago I guess. I was out with my friend Christine for dinner. Afterwards we stopped in at a pub for a going away party for a co-worker of ours. We ended up joining a few tables together and sitting with a large group, that included a guy named Kevin who appeared quite smitten with Christine. Kevin seems to think Christine was taken in by his ability to polish off both an order of fish n’ chips AND a clubhouse sandwich with fries, but I personally think it was his wacky sense of humour that got her attention. (Although, she does love to cook, so a big eater would be appreciated by her too). After shacking up for the past 8 years they are finally doing the deed and the wedding takes place in June!

Then there was John and Lisa. I was on my first date with the drummer in the band John played keyboards in, and it was his first date with Lisa. My date published a music magazine he was holding a party for, so after dinner we went there, where we saw John and met Lisa. I will never forget how impressed I was with John’s choice in a date… John was a very cute and *hot* musician in a very popular local band. He always had hot blonde Britney look-a-like girls hanging all over him at gigs. He could have any babe he wanted. Lisa was sweet, and natural; no make-up, clothes that totally covered her body, short, straight strawberry blonde hair. She was cute, but what she really had was brains, wit, a personality and she was a great conversationalist. Lisa told me afterwards she felt a little out of place and was glad that I was there to talk to (my date was kind of busy doing the mingling thing since it was his magazine so I spent most of my time with her!). I remember telling John every time I saw him after that how much I liked her and “where’s Lisa???” at every gig. Heh. Eventually she was at every gig and a few years later I went to their wedding I have lost touch with almost everyone from those band days, but as far as I know John got his Masters in Architecture, Lisa got her Masters in Business, and I am sure they are very successful, rich and happy!

The most recent would have to be Lisa and Russ. I fit into this one because I organized a party at the pub about a year ago and they were both attending. The party was for people on a message forum we all belonged too, and Russ and Lisa had just had a public battle on the boards that we all saw. They were not exactly “friends” at that point, but I knew Russ better than I knew Lisa, and he is a really easy-going guy, so I knew there would be no hard feelings on his part. And I knew Lisa well enough that I figured she would think Russ was cute, and that would help ease any hard feelings she harboured. Hee! I also remember telling another person at the party that I believed some of the best relationships actually start out with the couple “hating” each other. A spark is a spark, after all, no reason why an anger spark can’t turn into an attraction spark And it did. One year later, they are madly in love and even me, the number one cheerleader for love, didn’t see this coming. I guess I didn’t know either of them well enough to see them together long term, but I have gotten to know them both better over the past year (particularly Lisa) and see how great they are together and how happy they make each other. Cheers, you two, I predict a happy future together, of course because I was there when it started and I have a good track record as you can see from above