She was blonde and she was beautiful and we sat together at Burger King 25 years ago today. She reached into her purse. The new diamond on her left hand ring finger caught the light and dazzled me once again. From her purse she pulled a small "card type" calender. The year was 1977. I was 22 years old and a full time theology student at Trinity Christian College. I also worked full time at Panduit Corporation near my home. I was a hated "inspector" on the evening shift. If I felt the product, nylon straps used to hold wires together on many objects including the space shuttle, was not up to par I had the authority to trash them. That invariably made the man running the machine angry because his pay was determined by his production. As you can imagine I didn't have many friends at Panduit. The beautiful blonde worked at a day care and was an education student at Prairie State Community College. She was way to pretty to hang out with me but she chose to anyway. As a matter-of-fact this beautiful blonde only had one flaw.... bad taste in men. You see, the reason she pulled that calender from her purse was so that we could choose a date for our wedding. We ate Whoppers and fries. We consumed Cokes. We made a decision that would alter the course of our lives forever. Three more months... November 19. We set the date.

She is still a beautiful blonde. She still has bad taste in men. She still loves Whoppers with extra ketchup. I hit a home run that day. She didn't do so great. But all in all... I would not change a thing.