The Meeting That Changed My Life, Part 1

Eight years ago today, I met Don for the first time.

I was at the Baja Cantina with my friend, Kristi. It was a Friday night, and a typical Baja crowd. As we were cruising the bar, a nice looking man was heading our way. Kristi, not the shy one, started to tease him about wearing a tie to the Baja Cantina on a Friday night. With the crush of people, we couldn't really move, so we started talking and discovered that we actually had a lot in common. I was working on the Fox Studio lot, Don was working up the street at Fox Sports and Kristi was in his same building working for Freeman Cosmetics. I am a huge sports fan and Don was working in the Research Department for the Fox Sports Network (at the time we met, it was still Prime Sports, but Fox had just recently purchased them). Prior to that, he covered the Los Angeles Rams for the Orange County Register. Being a football buff, I was intrigued. Kristi was not a sports fan and she was soon bored by the conversation and went off looking for someone to buy her free drinks. Don and I talked for probably an hour or so. Kristi soon decided she wanted to leave, and since we drove together, I had to leave as well. She prodded Don into exchanging phone numbers with me, which we did.

It wasn't until I was in the car that I realized he had given me a wrong number. Since I did travel for people in his building, I knew the prefix was 399 not 339 like he gave me. I figured, "Oh, well," and decided that the napkin with his number would join others on the "Boys' Board" hanging in my kitchen (a collection of numbers, business cards, and other such stuff one collects when one is single and bar hopping).

The story continues on May 31 -- The Meeting That Changed My Life, Part 2.