I remember …

telling my coworkers about the house Christine and I looked at 2 days prior and were planning to buy.

listening to a coworker say she heard on the radio a plane had just crashed into the World Trade Center.

listening to the radio all day as the events unfolded in New York, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania.

emailing my mother and father and fearing the worst since they both work at a military base.

sighing relief and thanking God when they both responded that they were ok.

waiting impatiently for CNN.com, USAToday.com, or any news site to load up with up-to-date headlines.

thinking to myself, “Can this be happening to us? Why??”

wondering if anyone was safe at all anymore.

coming home and watching the TV news replay everything over and over and over again.

discussing with Christine on whether we should tell an 8-year old Daniel about what had happened.

waiting in line for nearly an hour at the gas station in anticipation of paying more at the pump (which would turn out to be considerably less than what we pay these days).

crying and praying for those we had lost and for our country.

May we never forget those whose lives were taken from us on 9/11.

May we remember our heroes who sacrificed everything on that day.

May we honor and support the heroes who continue to make those sacrifices each and every day.

May we honor and support our troops everywhere who continue to fight for our freedom and defend our country.

InBev to Buy Anheuser-Busch | digg story
Farewell to the king | Sale unpopular with workers, customers

Lola Naty celebrates her 90th birthday with her family.

From left to right – Jasmine, Steve, Daisy, Rochelle (behind Daisy), Nilda, Joan, Lola Naty, Jeff (behind Lola) Ted, Dinah, Dahlia (corrected – sorry girls! that’s what I get for not being around)

Thanks, Dad, for the pics – wish I could’ve been there

CL and I enjoyed yet another Chili Cook-Off in downtown Belleville. A lot more competitors this year compared to last; lots of people showed up to eat some really good chili (and drink lots of beer). We ate so many samples of chili that we couldn’t finish the last 6 booths Friday night. We returned for lunch on Saturday to try the rest, then we purchased our favorites to take home.

From that day forth, Christine and I talked everyday, online and on the phone. As time passed, our online friends would refer to us as a “couple” – Teny and CL. But we couldn’t really call ourselves a couple; we were friends first. There was a certain connection that we had; we could talk to each other about anything and everything. We used to say we were “on the same wavelength”.

We certainly took our time. We didn’t see a picture of each other for the first 4 months. We didn’t meet in person until Valentine’s Day weekend when I flew out to St Louis to visit her. My parents thought I was visiting a friend in Chicago. I didn’t feel comfortable telling my folks about this, given the nature of the situation. It wasn’t common for one to travel cross-country to be with someone they never met. I did tell my sister, and she thought the whole thing was cool. She did ask me, “what if you get to the airport, and she doesn’t show up?” I knew CL too well to not do this to me.

I arrived at Lambert Airport at 7:50 pm. Nobody at the gate. No big deal; my flight arrived early. I went to the restroom first. Came back out; no sight of CL. Still early – let’s go to the baggage pick-up. She wasn’t there either. I got my bags, sat down and listened to my walkman. 30 minutes later, still no CL. All I kept hearing in my head was my sister’s voice.

I gave her a call. Turned out she was having a situation with D’s babysitter, and it would be an hour before she would get there. Whew! Nearly 2 hours after I landed, CL finally arrived with a grin on her face. We had a wondeful weekend together, and when it was over, we wished it could continue.

I made 3 more visits before I felt I could call the Midwest home in 1997. I proposed to Christine in Orlando, Florida in October 1998, and we were married in Walt Disney World on June 22, 2000.

Somehow, thanks to an old AOL tool known as Powertoys, I still have the chat transcript of our chance encounter (and no, I won’t post it; it’s like looking at an old picture of yourself doing something rather embarrassing).

Happy Anniversary to my sunflower, CL …

I love you, Darling, with all my heart!

XOXOXOX

Teny

May we remember our heroes who sacrificed a great deal on that day and everyday since then.

May we honor and support our troops who continue to fight for our country and for our freedom.

• the creation of teny jr dot com
• CL and I celebrated 5 years of marriage
• got a new job
• D became a teenager
• spent my first Christmas in CT since ’97 (CL’s and D’s first with my family)
• got my new laptop

I reposted the original entries that got me to start blogging – basically me bitching about work. Since I no longer work there, I felt it was ok to put them back in (names were changed to protect others).

A total of 283 posts, and I don’t plan on stopping.