I probably shouldn't tell this story since it's not romantic at all and makes me look like a drunken tramp, but here goes anyway....

I spent the afternoon helping a girlfriend get ready to throw a birthday party for her boyfriend. This for some reason involved several pitchers of margaritas. Fast forward a few hours to the party and I'm very drunk. I was 23, I was a bit of a wild child at that point in my life! I'd never seen Stuart before but he knew the birthday boy so he had been invited. When he walked in, my friend told "stay away from him, he's trouble." Of course, I immediately had to find out why he was trouble and introduced myself. I'm actually quite reserved, but Tequila always gets rid of that side of my personality! We left the party together a few hours later, spent the next three days together and then didn't speak for two years. I lived a couple hours away at that point and life just got in the way. He was seeing someone else, I was in a messy something, I hesitate to call it a relationship! It's a good thing though. If we had tried to have a relationship at that point, we wouldn't be together now.

2 years later TO THE DAY, same friend calls me and says "guess who's house I'm at". I had moved by then, bought my own condo and turns out he had bought a house about 8 blocks away. I went over to have one drink, talk to my friend, say hi, and never left. We got married exactly one year later--again to the day!

At 19, a house plant would have been too big of a committment for me. I was 26 when we got married, Stuart was 32. At that point, we had both seen and done enough to know we were ready to settle down. It was very important to me that I never have to depend on a man for anything. I got a degree, worked in a demanding field, loved my job, bought a condo on my own, had my own vehicle, my own money ect. Stuart had gone to school, travelled the world, had his own wild streak ect. Neither of us ever has to wonder if we're missing something--we know we aren't, been there, done that!

My sister got married at 19. She's now 32, has three young children and is in the middle of an ugly, bitter divorce.

My mother, a very wise woman, gave me some advice when I started dating. She told me to never get involved with someone I "couldn't live without", look for someone I could live happily with.