Ok, Heidi, Laurie, and now Melanie have inspired me (aka ‘I’m totally
copying them’) to write about how Craig and I met, so here goes…
I had just quit my job at ‘K-Mart’ to go on a two week family
vacation to Canada. The store manager had changed and was in the midst
of revamping the staff, with a lot of positions being done away with,
mine being one of those, so I would have been jobless in a few weeks
anyways, not a big loss. When we got back, I immediately went to apply
at ‘Convergys’ (a call center handling billing, accounts and activations
for a major cell phone company) at the urging of several family
members who said it was a great place to work with lots of fun people.
During my interview, while doing my typing test, the interviewer left
the room as I began to type (the computer I was taking the typing test
on monitored my speed). When he came back he saw my words per minute
were well within the parameters, and I had no misspellings or giant
mistakes. Had he stayed, he would have discovered that in reality, I DO NOT
touch type, I’m just very, very fast at hunt and peck. No one ever
seemed to have a problem with this though, so I figured it was fate that
he left the room at just the right time. Either that or total boredom
after interviewing the bazillionth person that day. So after a quick
chat about my phone and social skills, I got the job. Two weeks later my
training class started. The very first day as we introduced oursleves, I
remember Craig stood up, and part of his introduction was talking about
his band. He was sitting between two girls and talking with them (I
later learned he didn’t know them until that day), and my first
impression was that he was a total player, very good looking, and I
intended to steer clear of him (although since I pegged him as a
lothario, I was sure he would be the one steering clear of me since I
was a single mom). There were also two people in the class I became very
fast friends with, starting on the first day, and they were Katie and
Ryan. Ryan lived only a few blocks from my house, so I often got a ride
to and from work with him, and Katie was a very cute and fun girl,
and we liked to hang out together quite a bit. Craig later told me he
thought I was dating Ryan because he and I had been hanging out a lot.
A few days into training, when several of us in the class, myself
included, told the instructor we were struggling with a particular part
of the training, he asked for volunteers that would be willing to help
some of us to understand the concept. Craig was one of the volunteers,
and the instructor paired us up. It didn’t take him long to help me sort
the whole cell phone thing-a-ma-bob out that was confusing me, and we
began chatting in the interim. I was still under the impression he was a
guitar playing, bad boy, love em’ and leave em’ player, party boy, and
that he was probably 21, if that. I was very surprised to learn how nice
he really was, and that not only was he not 21, but his birthday was the next day, and he was turing 28 (In fact it was Sept. 28th, his magical birthday!)
We ended up talking quite a bit that day, during break and everything. I
learned he too had been married before, was currently divorced, and I
was impressed with the way he talked about it all. I even went on to
tell him that I too was divorced, and I was surprised at the way he took
the news that I had two small children as well. You need to understand
this….I didn’t normally talk about my children with my co-workers/guys. I
had quite a few bad experiences with guys thinking that as a single mom
I was an easy target for their “moves”, so I had learned to keep that
part of my life quiet unless I felt it was relevant, and it worked out a
lot better for me. I had even had several guys seem mildly interested
in me, then when they found out I had children, they suddenly got VERY INTERESTED, which immediately sent up a red flag (um, pervert!). Although I took A LOT OF CRAP for it from some people, it had nothing to do with deception on my part, just lots of creepy guys. Seriously, you have no idea!
That same day Craig gave me and my cousin (she was in my training
class too) a ride home in his Jeep and I remember she made some comment
about how she thought his Jeep wasn’t as nice inside as she thought it
would be, I guess she thought it would have a ton of bells and whistles
or something. I just don’t think she realized Craig wasn’t a “pretty
boy” and he liked his vehicles more on the rugged side, something he
could get out there and have fun 4-wheeling in the mountains with and
not worry about it. His Jeep was really nice, just not brand new. I just
wanted to kick her since insulting his vehicle seemed like a crummy
payback for the ride he was so kindly giving us home. Especially since
it was totally out of his way, he lived just across the street from
Convergys and we lived quite a bit farther away. But Craig didn’t seem
to care what she thought, ignored her comment, and ended up offering to
come and pick me up for the dinner party some of us in the class had
planned for later that night. Our training class was very friendly with
one another, and we ended up very quickly deciding that parties, dinners
and outings together would be a lot of fun, and we were quite a tight
knit group even after our training ended. For some reason, Craig was
usually the one to pick me up and take me home anytime there was a
gathering, and we were asked quite a bit for a while if we were dating,
which we were not, we really were just friends. I also was under the
impression he was seriously dating anthother girl named Alecia, so I
figured he was off limits, and anyways, I was having a great time just
hanging out with him and everyone else. And as a group we really did a
lot togethere after work. It was a really fun time, and I met some very
nice and incredibly fun people.
We had quite a crazy weekend, and a happily busy one at that,
packed to the gills with fun and entertainment. We blessed F on
Saturday morning, and then had a luncheon right afterwards. It was so
much fun, and turned out so wonderfully, I am so thankful for everyones
help, it all went so smoothly. And I am so thrilled that both of my
grandmothers got to be there as well as my Auntie Patti to see F
blessed, it made it all the more memorable for me. (D was there for just
the blessing, and gave a lovely opening prayer, but had to leave before
we served the food) F looked so handsome and sweet for his big day, and
to complete his outifit I was able to finish making his special bonnet
out of a vintage Irish linen handkerchief. It’s meant to be worn as a
bonnet, and then once you remove the stitching it turns back into a
hanky and you can give it to your son for his future wife to carry on
her wedding day (or daughter to carry on hers if you do this for a baby
girl), and then it can be remade into a bonnet again for their own
babies. So fun! The hanky I bought had drawnwork on it, and my Granny
told me that she had learned how to do drawnwork as a very young girl
growing up in Ireland, and if I ever wanted to learn she would be more
than happy to teach me (there is no question I will be taking her up on
this offer). Anyways, after the blessing, the girls (my sister, mom,
grandma, auntie and myself) all went to the D.I. for some fun
scavenging, and I came away with two bags of awesome finds. Then I went
home so Craig could leave to go motorbiking, and everyone else left for
town to get ready for Mark’s birthday party that night.
The theme for Mark’s birthday party was “Arrested Development”, and
Mel did an awesome job of making things tie in (I for one loved all of
the signs and that everything was “Alliance Approved”), and it was made
very well known that “Family Love Marky”. The birthday party was
incredibly fun, and we all agreed that the magician was very
entertaining and pretty funny. I know my favorite part was when he
juggled fire, it was awesome! We loved it when A was called to come up
and be a part of the act, he was so funny, but we all laughed really
hard when Gary was called upon to come up and participate in a card
trick. I know he was hating it, but he was an incredibly good sport, and
even looked like he was having a good time. Afterwards, the “Arrested
Development trivia game”, which Mark won hands down, had us all
laughing, and then we had “Marky Trivia”, which was also hilarious
(although references to D.G.&L. were lost on some people). And there
was a slip and slide set up for the kids (or adults if they were
gutsy/brave enough), and it was a HUGE success, and everyone from W and
G-bee on up was taking turns going down and getting wet. The “Points
Auction” Melly had was a great idea too. I won a pair of “Alliance
Approved” handcuffs, and C got “Mother’s ‘R’ Horn”. (I am still
laughing about “Gene Parmesans eyebrow disguises”, did Ryan trade them
to Gary after all? and who ended up with the hook?) Anyways, Marky
got to open up all of his fun gifts, and then we cleaned up, loaded up
the car and headed home. It had been a very long, exciting, fun filled
day for all of us, and we all collpsed into bed exhausted but in a very
good and happy way.
Thankyou so much to everyone for helping us make F’s day so special
and memorable for his blessing and so much fun. And Marky we are so glad
we could be there for your birthday party, Melly you planned a super
fun one, we all loved it! The kids are still talking about it, and
playing with their magic kits, you did an awesome job!