Merry New Year
My dream was coming to an end.
I was blessed to be a marketing executive for the largest beverage company in the world. In addition to extensive travel, working with world-class professionals and making good money -- I got to develop campaigns and creative ventures from online promotions to highway billboards. I loved my job, but it was coming to an end. The Downsize Fairy had paid me a visit and my role was being eliminated at the end of the year. My job was the only thing that kept me 700+ miles away from her, and now proximity was no longer an issue.
How's that for a sign?
Ever since that fateful weekend, I spent every subsequent weekend in Houston. I'm sure Continental Airlines' stock went up that quarter because I was booking flights on a regular to hang out with my newfound love interest. When I couldn't find a good deal, I drove 12 hours to see her for two days. She even flew into my world and attended my company Christmas party. It was a delicate balance of budding romance and sensible friendship. Despite it being the "marketing phase" (no pun intended) of our relationship, she was so down-to-earth. Being with her felt natural.
In the midst of wooing this amazing woman, my professional (and personal) life was being turned upside down. If I wasn't emailing or IMing her, I was on the phone with executive recruiters and headhunters looking for my next opportunity before my job concluded on December 31.
I never believed that there was this mystical "one" created solely to share their life with you. It would be kind of cruel to be thrust into the world with only one soul to make you happy, and be charged with the task to find them with nothing but your finite wit and (perhaps) divine intervention. I say this to say that I had amazing women come into my life before and I screwed it up. I'm man enough and real enough to admit that I have crashed and burned through my share of great women -- and the scars have left my heart disfigured. What made her so extraordinary to me is that she looked at my scars and saw beauty. She knew of scars I've inflicted over the years and chose NOT to judge me.
She wasn't the first amazing woman to love me, but she was destined to be my last.
As we (literally) approached the new year, I asked her to be my wife as the second had swept us into midnight and a season of new beginnings we would experience together.
I was moving to Houston.
