It was 20 years ago on this day that the person that I was seeing with, announced that she was seeing somebody new behind my back for two weeks prior before our breakup on V Day 1998. We have been seeing each other for 3 and a half years, the first two years were great till we had a major fight on Independence Day of 1996 and that became the crack that would tear down our foundation of love together. Of course, getting a new car and a new trailer didn't help and with the breakup, it was time to get our name off the lease. I wouldn't be done with her yet, I then had to get the Corsica from a year later, to which by then, she was three payments behind and I was two steps ahead of the repo man and almost ruined my credit. The way she was seeing, eventually moved in and got kicked out for emotionally abusing her boys. I haven't seen her since.
Valentine's Day has been somewhat of a passe for me. There were times I did buy gifts for the ones that I was dating at the time. In 2000, I was seeing Olivia from the west coast and although the first couple months was fun, when she came to visit me in 1999 in 20 degree weather and snow, she decided that this wasn't going to work. On V Day 2000, I ended up sending her a lavender pillow in the mail, she liked it fine but she wasn't sure that she wanted to continue to be with me. At that time, my best friend was having issues with his long distance love affair but me and Olivia convinced them to stay together. In 2001, They tied the knot and have been married ever since. By then Olivia found somebody close to home, they got married and lived happily ever after. Or maybe not, I haven't chatted with her in five years now.
After my breakup with my last flame in 2012, I had enough of the dating scene and basically wrote this life off of ever finding anybody to be with in life. Funny thing about love is, it seems to happen when you're not looking and trying to convince anybody that it's not worth their time or effort to even think of being with me. I could live my life forever chasing records and music. Let's face it, I'm too old for children and not about to go the Tony Randall route of being a dad as a senior citizen, make a couple and then kneel over and die. But I got tired of watching crappy cable TV and become a couch potato, so I basically start playing guitar again and venturing out into the crowd. It'd be safe, nobody would want a 57 year old hobbyist with a crabby vibe and cuss the Creator out everytime something goes wrong.
And then Julie came along. She sings in local bands, hosts a acoustic jam every other week at Checkers' and probably the most unique woman I have met yet in life. An organic Vegan, with a hippie attitude and a love for animals and mother nature. She fucking hates the GOP, Donald Trump even more. She loves everybody that she meets and while the Conservatives will give her a hard time,most will agree that she is a sweetheart once you get to know her.
Julie has had a rough go in life. She lost her guitar playing boyfriend in 2015, and got both of her knees replaced the past year. But yet somehow, she saw something in me to maybe think that I was worth chasing. After her boyfriend's passing, about a couple months later, I was at a jam and she came up and smiled and introduced herself and sat down to check her smart phone for messages. A innocent start but it would evolved into me going to see her band play and playing drums on a couple songs and then started doing the acoustic jams on guitar,and she started singing along to my primitive guitar playing on Gold Dust Woman. Last December, she became my special somebody.
We didn't do too much for our first Valentine's Day together, we shared a few kisses and a few hugs. Instead of candy and flowers, I went to Earl May and picked up a Dragonfly figurine and she loved it. I also gave her some seeds for her garden to plant. She made meatless pasta for dinner. And we spent an hour together before I went home and her to bed.
There's no guarantees in life, love come, love goes. The special people will always remain by your side. Julie is one of those special folks. I hope she will remain a part of this life for a long time.
