Stalking Pays Off

I would like to introduce you to someone very important in my life, my fiance Scott, aka Hottie Scottie. We’ve been together now for ten years and engaged for three. It has been a looooong and windy road for us for many, many reasons which at some point, will make very interesting and juicy blog posts! Between the two of us we have stayed together despite Autism, Diabetes, a nightmare ex wife and deadbeat ex husband, living in two separate states and raising 8 children between us. I’m already exhausted just listing all of our relationship challenges. Not only is our Chapter Two love story built on an incredible foundation of resiliency and love, but it also has a hell of an EXTRAordinary story of how we met in the first place.

Hot Tub Time Machine Back to 1975, Hollow Tree School, Darien, CT

I pretty much came out of the womb liking boys. I was boy crazy as soon as I woke up to the world. I know, shocker😝 I can see my Mom’s head nodding in agreement right now as she reads this. I was baby Elizabeth Taylor. I was way too interested in boys at a very young age. I remember being in the second grade at Hollow Tree School and I was quite aware who the cute boys in school were. Even at 7 years old, I had my crushes. There was one in particular however whose face imprinted on my little, second grader brain. I was walking past the principal’s office and I caught sight of a sixth grader with the sweetest cherubic face, complete with a cleft chin and a mop of blonde hair. As if it was yesterday, I can still hear Mr. Forsberg say, “Now listen hear Scott, you are not allowed to correct your teacher. Mr. Squeo did not appreciate that. You will have to sit on my white chair and miss gym for this.” I went home to my Mom that day and couldn’t wait to tell her about my new cute boy discovery and crush, little Hottie Scottie.#Dennisthemenace

Flash forward six years, I was in my neighborhood playing foursquare with some of my friends. One of the girls invited us in to her house to have some lemonade. As I looked around her living room, I took a closer look at a family portrait. Being the early Maneater (see Tricia-isms) that I was, my eyes went instantly to the cute face of who had to be her older brother. Oh My God, her brother was Hottie Scottie. I nonchalantly looked around her house to see if I could possibly be so lucky to feast my eyes upon this unicorn. Much to my heartbreak, nobody else was home. The little devil that sits perched on my right shoulder began to taunt me. It was evident that I had to create a rouse to peer into his bedroom; I needed to feel his presence, to survey his unicorn den. I told them I needed to use the upstairs bathroom because my stomach wasn’t feeling too great. Wink wink.#didn’treallyneedtopoop. I quickly found his room, as I knew I didn’t have much time to pull off this Mission Impossible. I felt like Aladdin as I opened the door to the treasure cave. The unicorn slept on a twin bed with a tan comforter. I had to sit on it to get the full out of body experience. He had a poster of Jim Morrison over his bed and a huge poster of the Earth on his ceiling. There was a black guitar in the corner next to a tower of record albums. I knew two things; he was the super cool guy I thought he was and I had now officially become a 13 year old stalker before stalking became stalking.#Earlyfatalattraction

There were three more unicorn sightings of Hottie Scottie over the next few years. One at a party, one when he was working as a bouncer at a Boston night club and another at Baskin Robbins. To no surprise, he had grown up into the most beautiful man that I had ever seen. He was a real life Westley from Princess Bride. He was physically a living golden God: tan, muscular, blue eyes, the cutest cleft chin, heaps of blonde hair. I even need smelling salts right now as I’m describing this! But since I wasn’t Tricia EXTRA at this time, I didn’t have the confidence to introduce myself and my crush continued to allude me.#Crushedmysoul#Latebloomer

Hot Tub Time Machine Back to 2010

I was sitting one night having another one of my intense what to do with my life conversations with my Mom after yet another crash and burn break up that went something like this:

Mom: You know you really need to stop dating all of these younger guys. You should really go back on Match and meet someone who has kids and doesn’t live with his parents.

Me: Yeah Mom, the only reason why I do that is because they are less complicated; meaning they don’t have the baggage of kids and an ex wife. No drama and plenty of time for moi, a winning combination. Oh and they are like super hot and me being a Maneater and all I can’t help myself. But YES, I do agree with you BUT Match was so horrible the first time I joined and I’m still in extensive therapy trying to get over those horrific three dates I had.#PTSD

Mom: Just make me happy and join again right now, I will treat you to the first month. Let’s take a look at see who could be out there for you.

Me: Alright, alright fine. I can still use my old profile so I should be able to do that easily. Ok, I’m in, let me check out the talent pool.

*Five minutes go by*

Me: OH MY GOD Mom!! Hottie Scottie is on MATCH.COM!!! OH MY GOD and he’s still gorgeous. And he has hair and doesn’t have a dad gut. And holy shit he has four kids too!! What kind of a FOOL throws away Hottie Scottie?? OH MY GOD!!!

Within the hour, Scott had obviously noticed that I had seen his profile and sent me a message. This exchange went something like this:

Scott: Hi, you may know me, I also grew up in Darien.

Me: Thinking to myself, is he for real? I’m your f**cking stalker. Like duh, do I know you? I had a statue of you and an altar to your cleft chin in my room growing up. I have a list of our children’s names in my 8th grade notebook. But what I wrote back was: Oh, I know you alright.

Scott: Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Me: Oh, it’s a very good thing….

We decided to meet at The Goose bar in our hometown after having an hour long first phone conversation. We were off to a stellar start. To say I had butterflies would be a gross understatement; it was more like Mothra swimming around in there. I poured myself a dresser, got decked in a tank maxi dress and strappy brown heels. My mother wished me good luck as I left the house, and I tried to keep my shit together so I didn’t become a puddle on the floor.#Nervetsunami

I took a deep breath and walked into the bar like a Golden Gazelle (see Tricia-isms). I spotted him instantly, he was as intoxicating as ever. He was calm, cool, funny, kind, accomplished and smart. He had no ego and trust me if he did, it just might be acceptable. I could not stop drinking him in. Our first date lasted seven hours. We knew the same people, went to the same schools, we both had so many kids, two even had the same name.#Eightisenough#TwoJacks. Our physical chemistry was Supernova electric. We just clicked. It was almost like we had agreed in a past life to meet up again in this one. Hottie Scottie liked Tricia Waters, just as much as I liked Hottie Scottie.#Fantasyhadbecomereality #Asyouwish