What do you get a girl three years later? Leather and Glass

Three years ago today the skies opened up and unleashed a torrent of rain like I had never seen before. The wind lashed at the trees, the rivers began to overflow, and small dogs were seen to put on those floaty things "just in case". There was no time to build an ark, and besides I don't think even good ol' Noah had enough cubits for this one. I had to be tough, like a mail carrier, I couldn't let a little water deture me. I had to get to the church.

You see I had a date. We had set it up a few weeks before. We had promised to meet at the place of worship down the street from my house. Turns out I met a pretty nice girl. She thought I was alright and we started hanging out quite a bit. One day we decided we didn't want the hanging out to end. So we called a priest, filled some paperwork at city hall, and asked a few of our friends to swing by.

This was the front of the invite

On April 22nd 2006 Angela and I said I do. This was part of the inside

I wish I had a lot of great insight or deep things to say about the last three years or even marriage in general. Truth is I am tired. I'm not thinking all that clear. We put together a CD of songs as our wedding favor (cover is above) on the inside cover I wrote a short story about how Angela and I had come to be. It was really the first time I had written something and put it out for the world to see. I am glad it was about us. So with out a lot of extra words here is what I wrote three years ago.


How Could I ever have known that my future depended on Bruce Springsteen?!

The summer of 2003 found an auspicious pair enrolled in a sort of Rock and Roll boot camp. We both, Angela and I, were slaving away at a series of stadium concerts that August, when the boss himself came down from on high to divinely intervene.

While digging up a new walkie talkie battery, I over heard a girl softly singing a Gillian Welch song. My interest was piqued and we soon became friends. (Friends only if you consider the fact that Angela was making up mean drawings of me being below a dirty sock, but that’s another story) As the summer and stadium work progressed, we found a tired solace listening to Neko Case in my car, as I drove us to our respective homes at the suggestion of Angela’s sister Amy.

Mr. Springsteen made a triumphant return to Philadelphia at the end of that summer and Angela and I were about to drop, but God made Rock and Roll and I guess we were its servants. So we kept pushing through. The work was long and the shows were “Born to Run”. Well, I did the rockin’, she did the laughing.

The stadium shows ended and work carried on for me. Angela and I stayed in touch and I thought of her often. As the summer drew to a close I found myself at a concert for Radiohead and Angela was going to be there. We spoke briefly and during the show I went out to find her. Unfortunately 26,000 other people liked the band as well, and none of them seemed to know who or where Angela was. Giving up, I wandered down toward the front to catch a bit of the show. When by accident, fate, or by the hand of the Boss himself, I ran head long into her as the band broke into “Nice Dream”. I should have kissed her right there. It was one of those movie moments, except I didn’t need a boom box over my head. I had the damn band playing for me right there. To say that I realized at that moment we would be here today would be a lie. However, if there was just one moment, that might have been it. My life was changed. There was no letting this one go. It wasn’t too long after that we became inseparable. These songs reflect a lot of moments in our relationship. While not all of them are love songs they take Angela and I back into out relationship. From discovering new music, or uncovering music that had eluded us over the years, they hold special significance for us. I told Angela once that we could never split up: we would lose so much great music that binds us together

We hope you enjoy these songs as much as we have.

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The simple truth is I love you. Thank you for being my wife and my friend. Thank you for being who are and all the support that you give me. Here's to three more good ones.