Howie Invites Me to Dinner

 

(Photo was a little later on, taken by his elderly neighbor MaryAnn, after a dinner with her in her apartment next door to where Howie lived on Hawthorne Pond in the Gandy area)

 

I was so taken with Howie the night we met that I came home the night after meeting him at the aquarium and wrote Mary Hessler Key an email under the guise of thanking her for a lovely event, but my real reason was in the final line, “I enjoyed meeting your friend Howard, and if he asks, here’s my number...”

 

Howie was 52 and had never been married so Mary was all over him to call me right away.  Some women just can’t see a perfectly good bachelor go to waste, and she probably figured it would make him more interested in helping with her pet cause.  Howie had broken up a year prior from a woman he had thought was “the one.”  He’d been so broken by the ending of that relationship that he stopped dating.  Right before Mary’s event Howie says he sat at his desk, looked out the window and asked the Universe to bring him the right woman.  

 

He often tells this story and says that with the first couple of days three people had called setting him up with blind dates.  Two of the people were people he never dreamed would do such a thing, but he credited the Universe with giving him some options.  The night we had met we had talked until about 7PM and then rather abruptly he announced he was going home.  I thought it was going pretty well, but he didn’t ask for my number, so I didn’t know what to make of him.  Later he would tell me that as he was walking to his car he thought to himself that I was an attractive and interesting person and he probably should have asked me to dinner, or at least gotten my number, but then decided he just wanted to go home and read.

 

After giving Mary my number to pass on, I didn’t hear from him for 3 weeks.  To hear Howie tell it, he’d invited his neighbors over for dinner Friday and realized the Monday prior, after dating and not much liking any of the blind dates, that he didn’t have a date for that night.  He said, “I remember that blonde at the aquarium that Mary was all over me to call, but it’s been weeks without hearing from me, so she’ll probably hang up on me for calling her on such late notice.  He said he was holding the phone away from his ear because he was so sure I’d slam it down.  He had no idea how breathless I’d been for this call. 

 

I've been writing my story since I was able to write, but when the media goes to share it, they only choose the parts that fit their idea of what will generate views.  If I'm going to share my story, it should be the whole story.  The titles are the dates things happened. If you have any interest in who I really am please start at the beginning of this playlist: http://savethecats.org/

 

I know there will be people who take things out of context and try to use them to validate their own misconception, but you have access to the whole story.  My hope is that others will recognize themselves in my words and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet.  

 

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Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.