In August 1997, I was recently officially divorced from my first husband, the father of my two teenage children, and I was working at a law firm as the office manager and secretary to one of the attorneys. One of the secretaries to one of the partners had also been recently divorced. We both decided to go out to a place where we could do some dancing after work in Calabasas, California. It was a lovely spacious place with a big outdoor patio. The establishment said they were going to have a live band! We were really looking forward to some dancing after our lovely dinner outdoors on a hot summer evening.
After we had finished our delicious dinner, we waited patiently for the band to start playing some great music. The waiter had already cleared our plates as we waited. Shortly thereafter, the waiter came up to us and asked again if we needed anything else. We both said, “We are waiting for the band to start playing some music!”. The waiter said they cancelled the band. We were quite disappointed, but my friend said, “Why don’t we go down the street to the Sagebrush Cantina”! Sure enough, we did just that. It was a hot August night, and it was packed! They had a live band!
We parked our cars, and we both ordered our beverages and stood outside listening to the band. A few guys would come up to us individually, and we did a little dancing. Shortly thereafter, the band took a break. I had noticed a very handsome man sitting with two women, one on either side of him. He was quite popular! Afterwards, the two women left the table. Several minutes later, my friend said, “Let’s ask him if the other women are coming back”. The other two women did not come back to his table, so he offered us to sit down with him. We introduced ourselves and after conversing for a little while, the handsome man, Doug, said he was considering going into law enforcement. As soon as my friend heard that, she literally turned her chair around and ignored him. (She did that because her husband was in law enforcement, and he divorced her.)
Now it was just this handsome man and myself at the table. We had a really nice conversation, we danced several times, and he asked for my phone number. (He has since told me that it was the single smartest thing he ever did!)
Just the weekend before, one of my best friend’s husbands took me on a short motorcycle ride; so when Doug called me the next day to go on a motorcycle ride, I was not as nervous as I would have been.
He came to pick me up at my condo. He pulled up with his motorcycle, and I got onto the back seat. My daughter and Goddaughter were outside, and they were both shocked that I was getting on the back of a motorcycle with someone I recently met! Up until that, I was always averse to certain things that would be considered risky.
The rest is history. We have been happily married for 23 years!