Refresh. Regrow. Renew.

The identity of my guiding light was still in question but it did bring me back home to Texas, where my heart has always been. My goal was to finish school and graduate with a degree in criminology; from there I would either pursue my dream of being a serial killer profiler or join the peace corp. Neither of those happened, instead I met the love of my life.


I had always been happy being single and knew that marriage did not appeal to me and that I never wanted kids. Many of you are laughing at this point. So am I. So when I met Tim I had no idea what God had in mind for us. Just before I moved, my boss called the Black Eyed Pea closet to where I was moving and requested my transfer to his store. The general manager didn't want to accept me until I talked to him on the phone. He said that as soon as he heard my voice he knew he was going to marry me. I sure didn't know that, especially since I was dating someone at the time.


Time goes by and I begin to see that my boyfriend had commitment and fidelity issues so I let him go. This left me open to see how Tim, my boss, felt about me. He would always get this goofy smile on his when he saw me and would sit and talk to the waitstaff whenever I was there. I used to carry a bookmark of a painting called, The Kiss by Francesco Hayez. Tim saw it and thought of Robin Hood and Maid Marian but was so nervous talking to me he called it Romeo and Maid Marian. I have never seen him blush so much, he stumbled over his words and eventually gave up and went back to his office. I gave it to him after we started dating and he gave me the real one after that. It took several of these exchanges before I realized that I was falling in love with him. I went back to Tulsa to visit my friends and sort out what I was feeling. Upon my return home, I stopped by the Pea and dropped off my letter of resignation to Tim which let him know how I felt. Then I quickly ran out of the building to my apartment and waited. It didn't take long for him to call me. We talked a little, then he called me after work and this started a series of overnight phone conversations where instead of sleeping we talked. This went on for the next two weeks because we didn't want to jeopardize his position, but night before my last day we went to IHOP, had an ice cream sundae and held hands across the table for what seemed like an eternity. That was our first secret date but for our first official date we went to see Titanic. I knew he was keeper when I saw tears in his eyes during the movie. Three months he proposed, we moved in together and were married a year and half later.