To the casual observer it might look like you are just angry and lashing out, in a futile attempt to be hurtful with your impotent words.

Seriously dude, exactly what affect do you expect to have? Is there any purpose? By now you can't honestly think anyone takes anything so inane to heart. Are your actions those of a reasonable, rational and mature man that you keep claiming to be?

Or an angry, humorless douchebag.

Oh dear. Ivan, please realise it helps to actually be smarter than other people if you're going to insist on trying to show them up.

The quotes are being used properly in this context. Please make an effort in the future.

Yes you do lash out, and attribute your mistakes to others. Only when they keep leaning on it do you reluctantly admit to it, then you follow up by immediately reducing the significance of your mistake and then chastise others for making a big deal out of such a little thing.

You're angry because you know that doesn't fool me. You still did the thing, you were still corrected for it in a manner identical to the one used by you. You are still no better than anyone else here.

Try to notice I didn't say you were worse either. I'm just pointing out that this, like so many of your arguments, does not hold water.

The fact that you seem to be convinced that they do is much closer to marking you as being mentally deficient than anyone else you continue to attack.

Please Ivan, go and screw with people who really aren't as smart as you are. You'll be frustrated far less often.

I used to run an airbrush t-shirt business in a Vegas tourist trap and I mailed out a lot of jobs to tourist who would be flying home before I was finshed with thier shirts. So I was at UPS once a week mailing the stuff out. One week there was this cute chick in line behind me and she had on a t-shirt with a band I had never heard of. I told her it was a cool looking shirt and asked her who the band was and where she got it. She told me and we started talking. As I was leaving she said "hey, nice truck" (it was a 58 Chevy Apache) so I said "Thanks wanna go for a ride?" She said yes and next thing you know we were getting married.

Somehow I find the relating of this story not the least bit insulting. I'm curious if anyone else here who has been or still is married has a story about how they met thier wife and if anyone is insulted that I raise the question (and if anyone is insulted by my asking please accept in advance my sincere apology).

Sorry it took me so long to reply. You posted thirty more times in this thread before I had a chance, and by then the post had kinda gotten lost.

I met my wife who was then 17 years old, a red headed Canadian who was in University, walking down the hall of my dorm. She said hi. I was 19, a complete boob, and I assumed she had said it to someone else. Since noone else was near, she thought I must be stupid, and of course, as she has since found out, I am.

The Little Tale

During the summer of 2002, at my place of employment, several new hires arrived. Three sisters. Cute little Filipina ladies all. One in particular caught my eye. Her name was Nova. She was tall for a Filipina & her hair was long & wavy. She had a wonderful smile & laughed a lot. Unfortunately, when I asked her out I learned that she was already in a relationship with someone else.

Ah well. Them's the breaks.

Still, as time passed by, Nova & I talked more & more often. It turned out that she was having certain "difficulties" in her relationship...mainly involving trust. She revealed to me that her boyfriend didn't trust her.

"What makes you say that?" I asked.

"Well. For one thing he doesn't want me calling him using my cel phone when I'm at home." She said.

"Why's that?"

"He says he wants to make sure that I'm at home & not out with someone else."

"Ah. Yeah. No trust there. Dump him."

"But I love him."

Typical. I went on to try to give her advice, which included trying to explain to the guy that he has no reason not to trust her.

In any case, I thought I saw a way into her heart by trying to show her that there were better men out there...especially THIS one. It seemed for a while there that I was starting to convince her that I would be good for her, but in the end she decided to stick by him. They are still together to this day, so in the end it seems to have worked out for her.

So, once it became evident that Nova was definitely no longer available, I felt free to pursue other avenues...so to speak.

Along came Nova's younger sister, Norma, who just so happened to get a job at my place of employment as well.

So, I decided to try & get to know Norma better. Unlike Nova, Norma was a shortcake, about 5' tall to my 6' 2". She had wavy dark tresses & had the cutest laugh. Also unlike Nova, Norma's sense of humor matched my own & she GOT my jokes. What really won me over one day was when I saw that she was able to tell who were phonies & who were legitimates...so to speak.

Here's THAT story. We had this older lady who worked in my department who always told people to call her "Mom". She told everybody. She'd act all sweet & kind... in front of them. She fooled a LOT of people, including Nova. I learned that "Mom" was a storyteller of the worst kind. With one side of her mouth she was telling you wonderful things, while the other side of her mouth was telling unkind (and untrue) things about you to other people.

Well, Norma knew right off that something was wrong with "Mom", because on her first day of work she came to me & told me, "Who does she think she's fooling? What a liar." I laughed my head off & gave her a high-five. I complimented her on her ability to see through phonies & jokingly told her she was the future Mrs. Sondersted because that's the kind of woman I was looking for. That comment made her get all shy all of a sudden, but she smiled hugely.

However, I soon had to hit the brakes REAL fast, because I quickly learned that she was engaged to marry someone back in the Philippines. Well crap! So, I just stepped back & figured she'd just be a friend & over the ensuing months we did indeed become good friends. I harbored stronger feelings in my heart, but I kept it to myself. When it came time for Norma to fly back to the Philippines to get married, I got a little forward with her & asked her if she really & truly loved the man she was going to marry. When she said, "Yes." I felt that that was that. A couple of days later she flew back to the Philippines.

About three weeks later she returned & she was a happily married woman...or so I believed.

I maintained a friendly working relationship with Norma for a few weeks after she returned from the Philippines, but I noticed that she didn't seem to be acting like her normal jovial self. Not having been married before, I chalked it up to a normal reaction to getting married (just kidding).

Seriously though, I still cared for her & seeing her not acting "normal" was discomfiting.

Then an odd thing happened. Nova, of all people, eventually came to me & told me what the problem was. Norma was a miserable wreck inside because when she arrived in the Philippines to get married, she learned that her fiancée had been unfaithful to her. Yet, in the end she still married him.

I later learned that it was a matter of honor for her to go through with the commitment to get married. At the time, though, I was befuddled by someone doing such a stupid thing. Knowing what she was going through, though, helped me to understand her behavior, so I set about trying to alleviate some of her tensions by going out of my way to make her days at work happier.

I had already garnered a reputation at my place of employment for being a humorous individual, but when Norma was around I went over-the-top in my attempts to be witty. It worked and I managed to make her smile whenever I was around.

My informants, Nova & her sisters, soon started letting me know that I was the main subject of conversation in Norma's life...at work & at home. I thought that was cool & all, but I let them know that I had no intentions of going any further because of the marriage issue. They thought I was a crazy to think this way. They told me the marriage was a mistake. I agreed, of course, but (and I didn't tell this to Norma's sisters) unless Norma herself stepped up to the plate, so to speak, and said so herself, I didn't want to get any hopes up.

One day, Norma broke down in my office at work & told me everything. That her marriage was a sham. That she didn't love her husband. She was unhappy...except when she was talking to me. I told her that the solution was simple...divorce. She was against this...at first. Her "reasoning" at the time was that she felt obligated not just to her husband, but to her parents to stay married. I told her, rather abruptly, that she was being foolish. I told her a lot of things, but mainly I told her how foolish she was to marry someone who has already proven himself to be dishonest (to say the least). I told her that if her parents loved her enough, they would understand.

Norma then changed the subject to me by asking me how I felt about her. I told her the truth, that I cared for her deeply. I told her it hurt me to see her unhappy & that I would do whatever it took to make her happy. I told her that if she decided to divorce her husband, then perhaps she and I could see where things would go. I told her to go home for her weekend and think about things.

However, it didn't take her that long. The next day I started getting calls at my apartment, but the caller kept hanging up. On the third occasion, I took a gamble (I didn't have caller ID) and said, "Norma. This is no way to start a relationship." On the other end, she gasped & asked me how I knew it was her. I just laughed. I asked her why she kept hanging up, and as I had already surmised she just said she didn't know what to say.

So, we talked on the phone for a bit & she eventually told me that she decided to get a divorce. I then felt free to ask her out & a few days later we had our first date, on December 12, 2002, at a Mel's Diner in downtown Reno, Nevada. It had a 1950's atmosphere & as I expected, she loved the place.

At first, dating was covert, because she still harbored fears that her parents wouldn't support her. I kept pushing her to let me talk to them, but she wouldn't allow it...at first. Eventually, common sense prevailed & she told her parents that she planned to get a divorce & that she was already seeing somebody new. Surprisingly, at least to Norma, her parents were completely supportive & suspected for a while about me because of her apparent inability to hide her happiness after coming home from the Philippines feeling miserable. Go figure. And they wanted to meet me.

I met Norma's parents on their turf, at their home in Sparks, Nevada, the next city over from Reno, so not far from where I lived. Not surprisingly, we got along great from the start, especially after they learned that my intentions were nothing but honorable.

Once we got the "stamp of approval" from her parents, we decided to move in together. She, her 3 year old son & I. Yes, the natural father was her then-husband, but over the course of my courting Norma, her son decided that I was his "Daddy" & that suited me just fine.

Here's a tangential story involving my soon-to-be son, J.M. (which stands for Jan Miles, named after being born in the month of January 2000...January Millennium). I was invited to attend J.M.'s 3rd birthday celebration at the only Chuck-e-Cheese in Washoe County. This would be the first time that I would be meeting J.M. Norma warned me in advance that J.M. was the jealous type & didn't like anyone near his Mother. However, her fears were unnecessary as, not surprising to me, we got along from the start. I remember sitting down in the booth next to Norma when I arrived (everyone else was already there). Norma expected a negative reaction from J.M., but he allowed me to pick him up in my arms & introduce myself as "Mommy's good friend". It was all clear sailing after that, much to Norma's surprise. She later told me that if J.M. didn't like me, she was worried that she would have to break up with me. HAH!

Anyway, not long after receiving her parents' blessing...as well as J.M.'s...I purchased a three-bedroom condo with a HUGE backyard, but we lived there less than 2 years, wanting to leave due to the association of the condominium community & their evil machinations. From there Norma purchased a four-bedroom house (it was her turn because by then I had gone through the bankruptcy, so my co-signing a house was out of the question), & the backyard was even HUGER!

The divorce took longer than Norma would have liked, but you can't fight the system, so to speak. It was a lot easier than it could have been, had Norma's husband lived here in the States, but he didn't, so things went very smoothly.

It was a no-contest divorce & soon after we were married that June (2004)...and with a bun-in-the-oven, too. Our second child, a healthy girl, was born that November. The decision to name the child was dependent on whether it would have been a boy or a girl. If it was to be a boy, I would have named it, but when it turned out to be a girl, Norma named it. She decided to name the girl after me, so she was (and still is, by the way!) named Pauline Joy Trinidad Sondersted.

Lots of stuff happened thereafter, but no need to bore anyone more than they probably are by now... if they made it this far! Just know that we remain happily married with two healthy kids & no signs (knock on Formica) of danger or evil ahead.

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Yes, I know there are tons of grammatical boo-boos, gaffs, & just plain eff-ups, but I hope those that are interested in the truth will look past my amateur storytelling "abilities".

Anyway, The above has been copied & pasted from a file saved on my computer for quite some time now. I know I requested a consensus earlier in this thread (Really! I did!), but it seemed for a while there no one was interested in "The Little Tale". Trust me (or don't), I got over it (sniff).

With a couple of others deciding to share a little bit, I took that as an open invitation to finally let loose what 1 or 2 posters have been waiting for. Everyone else will either suffer through (Hi Alias!) or just ignore it. There will also be certain individuals who will feel the need to dissect & analyze & read between, under, over & through the lines. To them I say...whatever!

Thanks for listening. If there are any legitimate follow-ups to this, I will respond. All others, don't bother.

By the way...How many are disappointed that it wasn't one of those mail order bride stories? I know a few WANTED that so much. LOL!

tl;dr

Paul: Thank you! Congratulations on your family, and best wishes for all of you.

Now that said--Paul, had your daughter been a son...Would you have named him John Byrne Sondersted?