Day # 61 - Part One

I've been given an assignment by my bff... Write my story. Well... write "our" story... The story of Michael and Stephanie falling in love. The beginning thru to the wedding.

I'm gonna attempt it, only because it's required writing. If you knew my bestie, you'd totally understand... sometimes there's just no saying no to her! ;-) Plus, it helps that she said something about it being good for "us" and that it could help me feel closer to him and blah blah blah. DISCLAIMER -- Nothing is wrong with "us"! We're doing great. He's working a whole lot right now because of harvest... We're just not spending a ton of time together. I promise! Stop it! We're good.

The beginning...
Wow, um, where do I start?
I've gotta start a little before the beginning to lay the ground work/back ground I think...
K, rip it off like a band aid, right??

In June of 2004, I moved out of my then-husband's house and into an apartment. I had been married just shy of two years... and had decided that it just wasn't working out. (there's a whole lot more to that story - maybe another time) At the time, I was working at Biewer Lumber, as was Michael.

Not long after I had gotten settled into my own place, I started dating a guy I worked with, Kevin. UGH! I can't believe I even was interested in this guy! He too was going through a divorce, although he had been married quite a bit longer than I had. He was on the receiving end of his divorce though and it had come as a complete surprise to him. Needless to say, we were obviously both very broken, which most definitely caused us to lean on one another.

Michael and I were decent friends at work... but hadn't ever hung out outside of work or anything. Him and Kevin didn't have a great relationship at all though... That's not true... That's giving them too much credit actually... They HATED each other! HATED!!! They were both supervisors and very rarely saw eye-to-eye at work. They would both tell you that the other one was arrogant. hahaha! Remembering conversations I had with them, separately, totally makes me laugh now!!

At one point, I had kinda made it my mission to make them get along! I mean, Kevin was my boyfriend... and I had spent enough time getting to know Michael that I just KNEW he was fun! They had to be friends because I wanted to hang out with Michael! I would tell Kevin that they could be friends if he'd just try, that Michael was a great guy, that they actually had so much in common -- on and on. Kevin actually replied once "Yea, we have a lot in common! He wants my job and my girlfriend!!! He practically wants to be me!" (Michael and I laugh about that to this day!)

To say my relationship with Kevin was dysfunctional is putting it really lightly. We were a mess! And quite often, when things would go terribly awry, Michael would be the first person I would call. He'd be there to chat with me... or pick me up after a really rough night... Never with any blatant ulterior motives... Just being a friend, and a GREAT one at that!

And then the holiday season arrived -- (stay tuned for the next installment/part two)