In an effort to accomplish the two main points of blogging, i.e.; broader communication and egotism (heh heh), I have decided to bring people "up to speed" on how Lee and I arrived at this point. I know that many of my old friends may not have heard the full story, probably just snippets of second hand information. As for Lee's friends, she has been, in general, much more in touch with old friends than I have, so maybe they will just enjoy reading this. I guess we will find out. Also, it will be fun to go over the last couple of years!
For me, it all started in June of 2005. I was living in Salt Lake, working in the printing industry. I liked my job, and loved the people I was working with, but I was just feeling empty. I spent most of my money on either "stuff" (CDs, DVDs, Electronics, etc), Food, or Beer. My life felt fairly pointless. But, my heart was pointing me in the right direction, telling me very clearly what to do, and had been for some time. Unfortunately, it took a small breakdown for me to finally shut up and listen to my heart! The result of this breakdown was me selling my "stuff", loading up my truck and moving to Boulder, Utah. For those of you who don't know where it is, please keep it that way. For those of you who do, I am sure you have felt the magic of the place.
The best job available in Boulder was breakfast server at a restaurant called "Hell's Backbone Grill". I had never worked in a restaurant before, but since the labor force in Boulder is small, indeed nearly non-existent, I was hired. This was about June 15, 2005. The subsequent year and a half was a great time in my life, but was merely preceding the truly amazing time that was about to come.
In the Fall of 2006, in the first part of September, we hired a new employee. By this time I was a general manager of HBG, and was working 60-ish hours a week. I loved my work, so it was a good thing. But it barely left me the energy to notice just how cute this new employee was! When I finally did, I was wary, considering that I was a manager and this sexy woman from Wisconsin would be working under my supervision (although that didn't stop me from sharing a shot of whiskey with her and the other GM when I was making whiskey sauce one morning!!! Ahhh, restaurant work!).
Well, obviously, this new employee was Lee. We had some really cute, tentative moments together in the HBG kitchen. She mentioned to me that she graduated with a degree in Theatre, so of course, being the proud Utah Native that I am, I had to mention our amazing Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City. It's Tony award winning, don't ya know (wow, I have only been in the Midwest a few months, and listen to me!!). Some of you may know that I have been a lover of Shakespeare for some years now, and have been attending the festival often since high school. I mentioned this to Lee, and the seeds were planted. A few days later I came into work, and there was a note on my board from Lee, with the show schedule, and at the bottom a little note form her that read, "Shall we scheme?" :) Well, scheme we did!
But, before we get to that historic weekend getaway, there is more to tell. Lee was definitely in hot pursuit of me (not to sound vain!!). She asked me to go on many a walk, or hike, and I accepted, being genuinely interested. It seemed that something always came up, usually work or sleep (badly needed from too much work!). Then one day, we found ourselves together as we went to visit Blake Spalding, one of the owners of HBG, and a great friend and woman. Blake was sick, so I had picked up her mail for her, and I can't remember what Lee was doing there, besides, it's not all that important. As we where leaving, I could sense that Lee was kind of glum (turns out she'd just gotten a nasty letter from her ex!). I asked her what was up, and the tears came to her eyes immediately. I moved in to hug her, and felt that certain something, that chemistry between us. This is when I knew that something was going to happen between us, that this beautiful, intriguing woman from Wisconsin was somehow significant in my life.
Another fun story: I had been on a real tear at the restaurant, working over 36 hours out of 72. Jen Castle, the other owner, and also a great friend and woman, offered to let me go veg at her house, watch cable and raid the fridge. She mentioned that "the new girl" might be there taking a bath (Lee was living in a Teepee at this point). I am still not sure whether Jen was trying to facilitate something or not, but I had mentioned to her my interest in "the new girl". Anyway, I headed down to Cassa del Castle, went on in, and realized right away that Lee was in the bathroom. I felt like a Junior Highscool kid!! I collected myself, went to the fridge, popped a beer and sat down on the couch. I turned on the TV, and found a football game, which lasted about 2 minutes before I got sick of it. Rummaging through Jen's DVDs I found the complete series of Arrested Development. I started watching immediately, got under the down comforter, and got comfy, drowsing in and out of sleep. Eventually Lee came out of the bathroom, which was literally like ten feet from the couch! We uncomfortably explained our presence in our friend's house to each other, and Lee asked, rather demurely, if I would mind if she hung out until her hair dried. I said I thought that would be great, since she loves Arrested Development as much as I do. So we sat, on opposite ends of the couch, under the same comforter, and were very careful not to touch one another. I was still hung up on the "we work together, I'm her boss" thing, and Lee was playing it cool. But it certainly re-affirmed to me how sexy she is, and that there was chemistry between us!
"The New Girl"Then there was a fateful night a few weeks later. I came home from a dinner shift, and Lee was there with a few co-workers, having a bit of a party. I joined right in. It wasn't long before chemistry and lowered inhibitions took over! So much for "we work together, I'm her boss"! After that night, Lee essentially moved in with me and things progressed rather quickly. I knew I could really fall for her within a week, and did fall for her in rather short order, when we had our Cedar City weekend just before Halloween.
We were able to finagle a few days off in row together, and she bought us tickets to "The Merchant of Venice". We enjoyed our weekend, soaking up being in a city that, although small, was worlds away from what we were used to in Boulder. We went to restaurants and diners and coffee houses, we thrift shopped, we got in the hot tub at the hotel. Actually, when we weren't eating, shopping or enjoying the play, we were at the hotel. We had a room to ourselves, with no obnoxious co-workers to complain about the, shall we say, vigor with which we expressed our love to each other! We made the most of it and then some!
Some Halloween fun!We both still look back on this weekend as the real beginning, in a way. After this, we began opening up to each other in new, deeper, more meaningful ways, and have been cultivating that connection ever since. The beginnings of this cultivation will be covered in part II, In the winter…when the roots grow deep.
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