April 22, 1995

Reminiscing today. 20 years ago today I was waiting at home for a visit from my friends mom to let me know what time his flight arrived from Washington so I could pick him up from the airport. The last time I had talked to my friend was 3 days prior. He was getting ready to head to the airport to board a long flight to Washington where he had to do some kind of processing at an ARMY base after being in Korea for 16 months. He had asked if I would pick him up from the airport in STL, I said I would, but I had no phone, I had gone to his mom's house at an appointed time, per his request, so he could give me details. He had no idea how long he'd be in WA so he said he would send his mom to my house to let me know details once he knew....seems very complicated now that I think back!
So I'm at home waiting...knock on the door...it's my friend...not his mom! SURPRISE! Yes, surprise indeed!
Let me rewind... I met him when I was only 13, he asked me to go for a walk with him, so I did, this was in October. I didn't see him again until the following August when I went to High School. He was there. He had transferred to Southeastern for his senior year. It turned out he was the most annoying person on the planet. I gave him a graduation card telling him how much I didn't like him. He went to the ARMY, I went about my life...But he kept re-appearing. He would randomly call my house late at night and talk to my mom for a bit before asking to talk to me, my mom would yell upstairs, "Chris, the smooth talker's on the phone."  He would randomly show up at my house, or other places I was. We gradually became friends. He was quite the ladies man (that's being polite) but he could never get me where he wanted me. The years passed, he got married, I got married, he got divorced, I got separated and went to stay with friends at Ft Campbell. He somehow found out about this and somehow found their number and called me there. He was a lot happy that I was single, but I made it very clear that I had no interest in being more than friends with him. He was scheduled to  come home from Korea in a month, would I pick him up? So we made plans for me to be at his moms house on a certain date at a certain time to find out arrangements....
Back to April 22, 1995...SURPRISE....he asked me to go to lunch with him. I agreed. We went to Quincy, ate at Cassano's, went to his brother's so he could see all of them, then we visited more of his family (I was just along for the ride and felt VERY awkward and really just wanted to go home). Finally it was late and he took me home, he came in, and made it apparent he wasn't going anywhere, I told him he could sleep on the couch...He never left (literally).
20 years later, he's still here (sometimes sleeping on the couch ;}), which is seriously nothing short of a miracle. I believe that God has someone picked for everyone. I also believe that God picked Lou for me. I have many times questioned why, but I have no doubt that HE is why we are still together 20 years later.