30 DAYS TO THE ALTAR

If you read my blog dated December 26, 2010 you can tell that I was struggling through Christmas and life in general on that particular post.  It was a low point.  Late that night I fumbled onto eharmony.com really quite by accident as I didn't have a master plan of enlisting, enrolling, subscribing or whatever you call it in the world of on-line matchmaking.  No clue did I have of how to really maneuver the site nor did I fully read it at all - not Lynn.  I just started clicking on various things and one took me to this really extensive questionnaire.  I started answering questions which took about an hour to plow through. It was indepth and made me really think about who I was, what I was about, what made me passionate, what I loved, what I wanted in life, what I valued.  When I answered all the questions it said I was enrolled - WHAT!!!  I was clueless.  Then it said I was 35% done with the profile and that I should post pictures.  What the hell I thought, I'll put some pics up and finish it Monday night after work after I thought about whether I really wanted to do this.   About 11:00 p.m. on December 27th, 2010 I logged onto my email to find 17 matches from e-harmony in my in-box.  I FREAKED OUT!   I really didn't know I had signed up as I hadn't finished my profile.  I began to read through 17 profiles of men from all over the US (again I am an idiot and obviously hadn't set geographic parameters).  It took quite a bit of time to read through them all.  Some were alarming in their inability to be original or too right or left winged or too religiously fanatical and I knew right away there was no way, no interest based on what they written.  There were 3 that were more local to my geographic area.  I read those too.  Of all 17 there was only one that jumped off the screen and screamed that he was it.  The ironic thing was he lived in my town.  I didn't respond to any of them that night.  The next day at work I got an eharmony invite from the one that I wanted to find out more about - the one that lived in my town.  Over the next 5 hours we went through all the phases of eharmony.  I could not see any pictures as evidently I was on during a free enrollment period of time between Christmas and New Years.  I had no clue what he looked like only that I loved his humor, his candidness about his relationship with God, his love of things I loved, the way he wrote and articulated himself.  We got to the end of the written steps where I suggested since we were local we just meet and see if there was anything between us instead of going through it with eharmony.  The next step was his email.  I couldn't get to it without paying to join eharmony - a stipulation during the free trial enrollment period.  I was screaming in panic at how to get to his email - I had no way to contact him without it or to go backwards in the eharmony steps to send a message.  I called my girlfriend laughing hysterically telling her I was joining as I knew he was asking me out.  I paid $200 to join - yes you heard it $200.  His email came through at that moment along with his profile pictures.  His email was this, "So, when do you want to meet?"   I had just paid nearly $30 a word to get asked out:)  His pictures were beautiful.  There was playfulness in them.  He was sexy, athletic with beautiful silver hair.  I responded immediately with, "How about 7:00 p.m. tonight?"  We actually met at 8:00 p.m. that night.  It was an immediate connection.  We closed the restaurant down at 11:15 p.m. and he walked me to my car where he gently kissed my cheek and asked if I wanted to see him again the next night.  That was it.  We were together every day for the next 35 days till we stood before the city clerk and got married.  Yes, we got married at 44 and 52 years old after knowing each other for 35 days!!  January 28th, 2011 was the day.  I wore black, no pantyhose (ugh), a simple necklace and he had on a suit as he walked to clerk's office from his downtown office.  The pictures show two middle aged people totally enraptured with each other - love pouring out of their eyes, their body language - joy surrounding them both.  It was simple, serene and meaningful.  It was 30 days to the altar, but a lifetime of my path leading to this man.  Our paths had crossed several times in the months leading up to eharmony but we didn't know it or each other.  One click of the mouse changed everything.  And I mean everything:)