I Hate Chick Flicks! (A Valentine Message)

Have you ever been in a situation where something was going on in your life that was as great as it could be and you thought to yourself; wouldn’t it be cool if they were making a movie out of this?

Maybe I’m only one of a few that has ever had that thought cross their mind. My wife Sam (Samantha) tells me I’m narcissistic; maybe that explains it. But, needless to say, there have been many episodes in my life that I thought were fun, loving, or interesting enough to be put on film.

The other night I was sitting at my computer killing space aliens or some other bad guys, when I heard this; “wah wah wah wah wah wah” (kinda like Charlie Brown’s teacher in the old ‘Peanuts’ cartoons).

It turned out to be Sam talking to me (which is weird because she usually talks to the dogs in that ‘normal’ voice and I get the OTHER VOICE!!!!). After being smacked up-side the head with the TV remote, I turned my attention to where it should’ve been, Sam.

Sam said, “There’s a movie on the Hallmark channel with Reba McEntire called ‘Forever Love’, hun.”

I turned around and focused on the TV. I needed to watch this because the song 'Forever Love' became ‘our song’ after Sam and I met ten years ago in a ‘Yahoo Chat Room'.

Back then there must’ve been only nineteen or so rooms and it wasn’t too hard to find her again. Over the next several months of chatting together, we fell deeply in love. She was, and is, an amazing woman! I’ve never felt as intense of feelings of love in my life.

Sam lived in Texas and me, in Oregon, so we were more then two thousand miles apart. We would talk on the phone for hours. Our phone bills were ridiculous!

When Reba came out with the song, “Forever Love,” Sam decided it was reminiscent of our relationship; it then became ‘our song’. She once sang it to me over the phone. It was beautiful (Sam is the only reason I know how to spell the word 'beautiful').

I flew down to Texas to finally get together with her. I don’t why I didn’t have a stroke or a heart attack. The excitement was extreme, to say the least.

At the airport in Austin, Sam sat in the lobby not knowing she could go to the concourse to greet me. There was a fat ugly man with a rose that kept eying her. She worried about him and that he was really me and that I had lied to her. She was scared.

I was up at the concourse waiting for her. I went to the bar thinking she might be there having a beer. I thought she was a no-show so I gave up and decided to call my travel agent for a return flight, but I headed out to have a smoke first. There, in the lobby, was Sam. We kissed that first kiss, then left.

We spent a great week together. We spent the first night in a log cabin in Wimberley, near the creek. We drove to the Alamo and visited the River Walk. We spent the week all over the Hill Country of Texas. It was a sad day when I had to return to Oregon.

Sometimes life throws little curve balls, some bigger than others. Shortly after my trip to be with her, Sam was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her world had changed and she tried to push a lot of us out of it. Our relationship ended as we knew it. We kept in moderate touch after that and after a couple of years, God himself smiled on us and gave Sam a clean bill of health and we back to our love affair.

Sam moved up to Oregon on September 13, 2001 and we were married May 4, 2002. We’ve spent many nights dancing and singing to each other in our living room. She is the love of my life.

There was a part in the movie where Reba’s character and her husband were dancing and singing to each other in their living room to ‘our song’. The tears welled up and it’s been on my mind ever since. It was a cut-n-paste straight out of our love and our lives.

Now if y'all 'll excuse me; I'm gonna go watch ‘You’ve Got Mail’. *sniff sniff*