In October of 2002, I moved from The San Francisco Bary Area, to Dallas Texas. In November I got a job at  the wonderful world of Wal-Mart (said sarcastically) My job was a soft-lines proccessor. I was responsible for getting all of the clothing that came in on the trucks, ready to be put out on the floor, so I worked back in receiving.  My second day on the job, I met a guy, his name was Barry. He seemed like a very nice guy, and very mature for only being 24. He seemed also to be very intelligent, I didn't understand why he was loading trucks for Wal-Mart. He was painfully shy, and borderline agoraphobic. He was very uncomfortable around crowds of people, people that he didn't know, and especially around females he didn't know. However, there was some kind  of chemistry between us, and for some reason he  felt like he could lower the walls a little and trust me, so a friendship began. 

He got off two hours before I did, so when I got home he would be online........so we would chat. I also had a message board, and he started posting on that some. He had a relationship end badly a year or two prior to meeting me, and I was just coming out of a relationship, so neither one of us wanted anything other then friendship.  I was also 16 years older then he was, although at the time he did not know that. He was under the impression I was only 2 or 3 years older then him, but when I set him straight, it did not seem to be an issue. His family  was Pentecostal, and he was brought up in a very strict, sheltered environment, so he saw me as this slightly feisty redhead, with a little bit of a wild side, who might be fun to hang out with for a while.  Neither one of us had any intentions of allowing a relationship to develop, but there was this underlined chemistry between us.  Even though we had never even been on a date, people at work were starting to see us as a couple. Though we were just friends, and our relationship was strictly platonic, he seemed to take great pleasure in spoiling me. He treated me differently then any other guy I had ever been with. I couldn't help but think that if he was treating me this well when I was only a friend,  I could only imagine how I would be treated as a girlfriend.  It was obvious to me that he was brought up very well, and had a very strong positive male influence in his life, and he knew how to treat a woman. 

He got off at midnight, and I got off at 2 AM, so he started picking me up after work some nights, and we would go out to Denny's and play cards for a while. That was basically the extent of our time together until late June of 2003.  I was off on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and he was off on Sundays and Wednesdays.  One Tuesday night I was at home, doing some things online, and he signed into AIM. I was surprised to see him. He was supposed to be at work, it was only 10 PM. He said they let all the unloaders go home early, and he wanted to know if I  would like to go to a movie. I was actually quite surprised he asked.......so of course I went.  From there we started going out some on Wednesday nights, We would go to  dinner, to movies,  and sometimes we would go bowling. He started picking me up after work more and more, and we would go out then, also. Our favorite place was Denny's where we would play cards all night.  Sometimes we would go to a cemetery,  I love to hang out in  cemeteries  in the middle of the night.  In October, my schedule changed, and we now worked the same shift, so he started picking me up for work as well.  He started coming over to my apartment after work, and we would watch movies all night.  I also started cooking for him on Tuesdays. Wal-Mart was basically right down the street, so he would come over on his lunch break, and I would have dinner ready.

In November of 2003, I met his parents, and  they were wonderful. I told him over and over how lucky he was to have such a cool family.  Then around thanksgiving our relationship changed. It seemed we were no longer just platonic friends. Even though we still considered ourselves free to see other people, we started showing affection to each other.  That December I lost my Internet connection, due to some personal problems,  so the time we would both normally be online, we started spending together. After a while I didn't even miss my Internet, and decided not to even bother getting it back.

In March of 2004, I started going to church with him on Wednesday nights, and spending time with his family.  In April of 2004 we realized we could no longer hide the feelings we had for each other under a guise of friendship We shared how we felt about each other, and began to entertain the possibility of having a future together.  For the last several months I had also been encouraging him to get out of Wal-Mart. He had a degree, and a brain......and needed to be using them.  Since he was now considering marriage for the first time in his life, he decided that would be a good idea.

In May of 2004 he met my parents, and it was all good. His family liked me, my family liked him, everything was falling into place.  At that point though, we didn't really have any set plans. We just knew that we loved each other, and would one day get married.  Neither one of us were really in any big hurry.  We went though the summer just enjoying each other, and enjoying the new relationship. On November 23 2004, in the middle of a wicked Texas thunderstorm, he got down on his knees in the pouring rain, and placed a beautiful engagement  ring on my finger.  With my love of storms, that was the most romantic proposal, ever. I was so happy, I had the man of my dreams. He and his family saw to it that I had the wedding of my dreams, and my parents saw to it that I had the honeymoon of my dreams. 

On April 16 2005, in a romantic fairytale like ceremony, in front of 100 close friends and family, we were married.  A week later we boarded The Carnival Cruise Line's  "The Elation" in Galveston Texas, and took a wonderful eight day trip through The Caribbean.  I can't recall any other time in my life that I was ever this happy.  We've been married now four years,  and he still spoils me rotten.  We have the kind of relationship that people say only exists in fairytales.