The ATM was giving me problems that evening. The tall, fair skinned, red head behind me
seemed to find my troubles amusing. As I finished up I apologized for the wait and bid her a
good evening. I wasn’t sure what bar I would be spending my time in first. I had never been to
Royal Oak and wasn’t familiar with the bars. The red head, (I don’t remember her name)
finished her turn at the ATM and saw that I was a bit lost. She asked if I needed help finding
anything. I found her attractive and asked where I might find a good place to get a drink. She
suggested the place she was meeting her friends at. We shared a few drinks and really seemed to
hit it off before her friends showed up. I felt my heart sink as she walked away and I failed to get
her phone number. For the next little while I contemplated walking over to ask for her number
but I couldn’t muster the courage.
After that, I spent the rest of the night drinking away the loneliness that had been my life back
then. It seemed like one doomed relationship after another. Having moved home from California a few weeks earlier I had few close friends and was feeling a bit alone in the world. So I drowned my sorrows pretty good that night. What if I had acquired her number? Would that have changed how my life turned out?
I took solace in my room the next day, nursing a hangover and playing video games. The
shades drawn to keep the sun from amplifying my headache, I wasn’t interested in going
anywhere. I was living with my parents till I could find my own place. My brother John had
recently started seeing a girl named Amy whom I had yet to meet. She called me to ask if I was
interested in going to the Oktoberfest at Orchard Lake St. Mary’s that day. Having spent the last
evening polluting myself, I thanked her for the offer, but said no thanks. Then Amy set the hook.
“A friend of mine is coming too” she said. I pondered the statement for a minute or so, groaning.
Then after some carefully worded questions, I begrudgingly agreed to go along. It was a total
setup. It would also prove to be a real life changing decision. What if I had been a lazy ass that day?
After I arrived, we set out from John’s house to meet Amy’s friend, Jodi. She met us in the
parking lot of a strip mall near Orchard Lake. She was in jean shorts and a baggy sweatshirt,

donning sunglasses. She was cute but I couldn’t make out her eyes through the sunglasses.
We arrived at Oktoberfest and made our way to the beer tent. You could smell the food
coming at you from all directions, if I had only felt better to enjoy it all. It didn’t take long
though, before the hair of the dog came around to put me in better spirits. The beer began to
flow, Jokes were told and Jodi and I began talking. I think the ice breaker came when the subject
of Monster Truck pulls came up and I said “You can buy the whole seat, but you’ll only need the
edge!” We talked about our families and how her dad graduated from Orchard Lake St. Mary’s. I
attended Orchard Lake for my freshmen year in high school. Her Dad and I both served in the
U.S. Air Force also. She had never seen the campus, so we took a walk so I could show her
around. The campus never looked quite as perfect as it did that day. The fall colors were starting
to show and the sky was clear blue. She would share one of her dad’s stories about the school
and I would show her where it happened. I had never felt quite so comfortable with someone I
had just met.
Throughout that beautiful fall day, she never took off her sunglasses. This bothered me. I find
the eyes to be my favorite part of a woman’s face. The lips are nice, and provide couples with
hours of fun, but the eyes tell so much about someone. Pretty eyes tend to be a weakness of
mine.
I asked her to take off her sunglasses. She looked at me with an inquiring look, as if to say,
what’s your problem? I told her that I just wanted to see her eyes, I was very curious. The late
afternoon sun was glistening off the water, shining up at the buildings around us as she removed
her glasses and I saw two of the most breathtaking eyes I have ever seen. I fought hard to contain
my glee, as I knew I had found someone that I could truly enjoy, spending time with.
We continued our tour of the campus checking out the grotto and the castle where Pope John
Paul would stay when he visited. Then we found our way back to John and Amy. More beer and
some food to finish of the visit, and everyone left happy!
We decided to all head back to John’s to play some cards and hang out. I didn’t want the
evening to end. I had that feeling, you know, that feeling. It was like just after a few hours I
knew this was someone I wanted a relationship with. Could she be the one? Man, what if I had
stayed home today?
The evening turned to night and everyone was tired. I knew it was time to go home, but I
didn’t want it to end. I walked her out to her car. The night had fallen but just to the edge of dark.
It was twilight and there was enough light to make out objects close by but not details. This was
good because it wasn’t quite as evident what a piece of crap I was driving.
As we arrived at her car I knew that I wanted to kiss her. Her sunglasses were acting like a
plastic headband to hold her hair off her face. We exchanged phone numbers. She wrote her

number on the back of her business card. I’m sure I gave her mine on a piece of scrap paper. We
stood talking outside for what seemed hours, when in reality it was only moments. When it came time for goodbye, I’m not sure why I couldn’t keep myself from kissing her. We hugged and I kissed her, we chuckled like school kids and I kissed her again, then we hugged and I kissed her again. I’m sure that the three kisses broke some kind of blind date protocol but I didn’t care. It was a great end to what started out as a throw-away day.
Over the course of the following year we moved in together, and became inseparable. A year
to-the-day later, I asked her to marry me on a porch swing near the castle at Orchard Lake St.
Mary’s. It was a day almost as beautiful as the first. To complete the trifecta we were married a
little over a year after our engagement at, you guessed right, Orchard Lake St. Mary’s. It’s a
special place. If you ever have the chance to visit the campus, I highly recommend it!
If you sit and think about your life and the choices you’ve made, doesn’t it make you wonder?
I know the big choices are easy. I should have gone to college. I should have saved more money.
What about all the little decisions we make every day and don’t even ponder them? What if you
made some of those decisions differently? How much would your life change?
I made one decision that has guided my life to right where it is today, but what if I would
have stayed home that day? What if I would have pursued that red head? I wonder where she is
today? I can tell you this….. I don’t have any regrets! I have a beautiful wife and best friend, and
two of the most incredible children god has ever created. Here’s to great decisions!