Chapter 21 - The Greatest Love Story Of All Time

I have written and re-written this a hundred times. At this point, I need someone like Brian Helgeland to come along and take down my thoughts, and then make it a masterpiece like 'A Knight's Tale'. I have admired his work for 17 years, and have owned his domain name for like 15. I have offered it to him for no charge, but have had no response up to this point. I have tried!

I have been married twice, almost a 3rd, and a few relationships beyond them. I will put my faith and history into another's hands in order to maximize the movie story line. It has in no way been boring, but only Hollywood can embellish a good love story!

OK. I think I am ready to begin the journey. God help me! I will not post every detail, every time. I also may embellish a time or two. It is not to feed my ego, but to appeal to Hollywood. I want this to be a good movie, ok? LOL.

This just in... 8-1-2018, wife number two just got married for the 7th time. I really do hope she finds happiness and more. She will be referred to as 'D'. First wife will be 'K' and shoulda been 3rd wife will be 'A'.

In high school I was a good looking young man. Very talented and active in golf, basketball, football, drama, chorus, trumpet trio, brass quartet, pep band, jazz band, concert band, marching band, National Honor Society, Annual Sports Editor, Sports Writer for the school paper, and more. I did have a tough time talking cool to the ladies. I found alcohol fixed that, so I started partying at 16. Later I think I was not really shy, there were just so many things going through my mind at one time ( I have an IQ over 140), I fumbled on what to say. I have gotten over it with practice. We won four state high school golf championships in a row. I could never get better than a five handicap. More golf stories can be found at thebestgolfstories.blogspot.com . On trumpet I could hit a double high C, which is very very impressive. I could scream on the horn for sure. Lead jazz trumpet for 8 years in h/s and college.

In college I continued to party even more. I hardly ever studied. I got my degree in four years with a B average. I took the LSAT and did pretty good, but did not go to law school. My friends had a 3.97 in college, and I beat him on the test. He got his education, but never practiced law - just golf. In college I met my first wife - K. We had a lot of fun together. Partied a lot. She had the most amazing family. My family was small, and not at all close. Her family was exactly the opposite, and I fell in love with them as much as K I think. I did try to break up with her a couple times, as I knew I was young, but she would just cry and get upset. For some reason, one day I asked her to marry me, and that was it, done. Fast forward, new house, 2 kids, new cars, and much more. I pretty much had the perfect life, but I lived with a woman that I no longer loved. There was no romance or passion of any kind. We worked opposite schedules, and that did not help. Bottom line, she became a mom, and I had no wife. And I wanted it, badly. I would pray to God to get me out of this relationship, and let me find true, hot love. Be careful what you wish for. Wow, be careful.

I was working at MCI in Denver. A few of us were at the bar after work. And the usual talk brought up the question, who would you like to sleep with the most in the office - there were about 200 employees I think. It was easy for me. I said D. The others understood. Then one day, they had a quarterly event for the top performers. No spouses. D made it too. After a fancy dinner at the Brown Palace downtown Denver, there was an open bar, and a band. I was walking around, and I saw D sitting all by herself at a table. Well, I was not going to let this pass. We danced the night away. Went around the 16th street mall for awhile on a shuttle. Made out. I got home around five in the morning. K was not happy. I had makeup on my shirt, but I said it was just dust from the floor in the basement where the washer and dryer were. She let it go. (We saw Cindy Crawford that night from three feet - gorgeous!).
D and I had lunch together most days after that, and planned our future together. We were both married, not happy, and committed to make the move together. She was on her 2nd husband. She promptly had her husband move out, and filed for divorce. I asked for a couple weeks. I was going to break it to K while my kids were on vacation in Arkansas. However, one night before that happened, she came to bed one night, and asked me if there was someone else. I hesitated, and she says - well that answers that. She was shattered. The next morning she promptly called all family and an attorney. She went to my daughters, who were 7 and 11, and told them daddy has been lying to you. He is seeing another woman. I will never forget, or forgive for that moment. K left the relationship many years earlier. She did not even try to be a wife to me. I did on more than once occasion. She was content with being a mom. I was praying to God near the end, and he answered. And you know what they say, be careful what you pray for - you might get it. I may have found love and romance,but there was a set of luggage there that was too big for me to handle. Our relationship was doomed from the beginning. D was loco, and I will not go into much detail. Her anger. Her lack of self esteem. She was very beautiful We built a beautiful home in Highlands Ranch. We ran into some financial pressures, as I had given K more money than I could afford. My attorney was mad at me. I felt guilty and gave in. I should have held my ground. I had no problem caring for my kids, but I forgot about taking care of myself, and I was crushed by a series of events, starting with what I gave her in the divorce. In the back of my mind I knew I could always make enough money to support everyone. I was wrong. So much for all this - let's get to something more fun.

I got my own place on Mill Ave, just south of the freeway. I also got a new job at New Strategies. The first entry in this blog says I moved here by myself. I will leave it up to my screenplay writer (hopefully Brian Helgeland) to make the final draft. Other entries in this blog talk about various friends and activities. I will let the SPW fit the pieces together at his/her will. Now I will take about maybe the number two character in this film project - TO (Dr. Tim). TO is a chiropractor. He had long hair, and reminded me of Nicolas Cage. TO was older than most of the rest. He was a very free spirit, and he helped me rebuild myself with more confidence and much more of every thing. I will give TO credit for getting me into the Tempe night life, especially the local bands. I had many bands I followed. They knew me, I knew them, I knew the servers, the bartenders, the customers. They became my family, and to their credit I would say they saved my spirit. The rekindled the fire that burned deep within me, and I became happy again. I did have a go with depression, and after consulting a psychiatrist, and trying a few drugs that made me worse, I found Ativan that wiped out the clouds in my brain, and I was reborn. Single for the first time since 18, making more money than most, and ready to live the life of a rock star. I was 39. The girls thought I was 29, and I only dated women from 20 to 29, by accident I guess. I had thought about plastic surgery to slim the waistline, but TO talked me into a personal trainer. I paid Sean $250 a week for four one hour session. He would work me until I would almost collapse. The results, after a couple months, he said I had the body of a professional athlete. Man did I feel good! Wow! I highly recommend this to anyone that can afford it!

I am going to write the timeline as close to reality as possible, and I will leave it up to the SPW to squeeze it into a 111 minute movie. In addition to the night scene I played a lot on love @ aol. Met some nice ladies. Slept with most of them. It was a moment in time. One of my first relationships was with Jamie. I wrote about her in a previous chapter. Then I tried Scottsdale with Shawn and Chris. I wrote about this in a previous chapter. Then I went Long Wongs on Mill Avenue, and The Yucca Tap Room, and more. I really got to know the local scene in Tempe. I wanted to go to ASU at 17, but my Dad did not let me. Well, at 39 it was still a whole lot of fun. I got to know all the servers, bartenders, musicians, patrons, and had a blast. I would stay home on Friday and Saturday, but the other five nights I always had a plan/place to go. Stephen Ashbrook and Satellite were my faves, and they all became pretty good friends.

Next up throw in some of the destinations that I described in one chapter. Lake Pleasant. Rocky Point. Local Resorts. Scottsdale. Etc. Then I met A. At one point she asked me to marry her. I said no. Later I asked her to marry me. She said know. We were on and off for several years. We just could not get on the same page. At first, I expected her to kick her husband to the curb, and we would live together right away. That is how it worked with D. Being Polish, and tightly involved in the Polish community, she said it would take time. There were things she had to do. She and her husband were living in a house owned by her husbands parents. So they needed to find an apartment and move out. Then she had to get her youngest into daycare. It took her a year to get him to move out. We broke up numerous times during this year, but we always came back to each other. What we had was very strong. We called it - That's FI! (fucking incredible).