My Life Changing Moment...

....was 7 years ago today. I met A that day. I didn't recognize it as a life changing moment at the time, but it was. I had gone to the city to watch the St Patrick's Day parade with A's cousin B, who is my co-worker, and B's girlfriend. This was the first St Patrick's Day parade after 9/11. A was marching with his FDNY firehouse. I remember the sustained applause when the firemen came by. The parade paused for a moment in front of us, the people just kept clapping and clapping. This was the first year they had the probies carry the 343 flags - what a moment, it still makes me want to cry. As you might imagine, the city was teeming with firemen that day, not just from NYC, but from all over the country. We arranged to meet up with A at a bar on the Upper East Side - packed to the gills with firemen. So - B introduces us to A, he says "Nice to meet you, can I get you a beer?" He comes back with the beer and that was pretty much the last I saw of him. I wasn't really looking at the time and A was still married to his first wife, so I didn't dwell on the meeting much. He clearly stuck in my head from that meeting though - because 4 months later, B's girlfriend says to me "B's cousin A is down in his office. He's getting divorced. You should go down and say hi." I TOTALLY made up an excuse to go down there. I chatted with A for a few minutes, then headed back upstairs. A later came up to my office, passed me a business card with his number on it and said "Next time you are in the city, give me a call" and hustled out of there. The next day, he e-mailed me and asked me out. The rest is history. So - little did I know, but that moment in the bar 7 years ago changed my life. And I'm one happy girl that it did!