I hear my girlfriends asking me to join them at the gym and all I can say is I don’t need it right now. As I do my calisthenics on the newly turned earth getting ready to plant the spring and summer vegetables all I can see in front of me are rocks, rocks and more rocks. After all, it's Missouri.
I’m in charge of removing the rocks from the dirt so grumpy can plow and put the seeds down. I will be happy when I can pick up all the fresh vegetables during the summer months but right now all I can think of is: 39 years ago I was in Hawaii enjoying the sand, the rainbows and the sun.
What happened? This is how I met grumpy: a friend of a friend of a friend called me one evening and said a friend was in from the mainland and he was looking for good restaurants; he was on a generous government allowance.
At first I said I was not interested because I was tired from work and did not want to meet another loser. She insisted again and again until she put her husband on the phone and again I said NO. Then another friend called and asked me again and I said NO. The matter was settled because this friend went to school in Greenfield, MO and I liked him a lot. He then said this government employee was from El Dorado Springs, so I could not turn him down.
At the time I was the best food sales rep on Kalakawa Boulevard in Honolulu so I was very well acquainted with the best restaurants in town; I said I would meet this gentleman but for my own security he was not to pick me up at my house, I would meet him at the military hotel where he was staying. You never know what can happen.
I spied this red-headed, red-bearded very good looking guy coming down the spiral staircase at his hotel and I said to myself: if it could only be him. It was.
One of my conditions to meet him was I would have one drink with him and if I liked him he could buy me another one and if I really liked him, he could buy me dinner. We were on our way to dinner very shortly.
While getting acquainted, the bar maid, wearing a very, very short skirt and a cleavage showing most of her assets, kept grumpy's attention focused on them; I asked him to exchange seating with me, so his neck would not suffer too much by turning all the way around looking at the woman. He was surprised by my move and he promised to marry me as soon as he could.
The restaurant I picked was dark on Wednesday evenings but the chef was a friend who invited me to test his new culinary surprises; we walked from his hotel to the restaurant and he was so impressed with the ambiance and the deliciousness of the food along with how quiet it was (there were no other diners) that he said he was ready to marry me right then.
After his return to the mainland and with my assurances I would wait for him, he asked his mother to send me his birth certificate, confirmation, first communion and other documents to present to the priest in Pearl City where we were eventually married only four weeks after we met, in an outdoor church with the birds singing and the smell of Plumeria in the air.
And now here I am picking up rocks to get the vegetable garden ready for spring and summer. I miss the smell of Plumeria, but living here is like a never ending vacation.