Eleven Years Together

Well actually it has been more than eleven years - I think we met in 1995 but I am not so good with dates, so let's start with twelve years ago.

Twelve years ago is a long time ago...
Twelve years and twenty-two days ago, at 8:00pm on September 29th 1998 Lori and I packed our backpacks with shorts and flip-flops and jumped on an airplane to Australia.  We had an inexpensive round trip ticket...  but we had to fly the LONG way around the world to get to Australia - BOTH ways!  We arrived in Australia on the 2nd of October - 52 hours later!  It was an adventure that we both loved, we had toured through the outback and visited all the beaches on our road trip down the East coast.  By the end we had traveled to Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and England before visiting France, Italy and Germany.  At the end of our first full day in Paris and only 20 days before the end of our trip we received a message at the front desk of our hotel - our first niece Katie was born!

That summer Lori and I took summer jobs, Lori was researching plant species on Pelee Island in the center of Lake Erie and I was a raft guide at Wilderness Tours.  I was only able to get one weekend off that summer to visit Lori.  While I was there I took her for a picnic on the beach and asked her to marry me - she actually agreed!

Now we were pretty young when we got married.  I was a raft guide and Lori was a plant studying summer student/biologist.  I have to admit, at times I was wondering what the heck we would do to get real jobs!  A couple of months later, the Friday before our wedding, I received a call from a manager at Nortel, I was offered a job and he wanted me to start 2 days later, on Monday - 4 days before our wedding.  Yes - I have to admit - I sometimes feel like I have a horseshoe in my pants...
Well it turns out that for only the second time since our wedding in 1999 - the calender aligns.  This Monday marks my 11th year with Nortel/Ciena and of course 4 days later on Friday it will be our 11th wedding anniversary.  I don't know why, but that alignment definitely took me back in time.  Two of the biggest life changing events in my life happened in one week - it was quite an experience.  It has been a fun, adventurous and rewarding 11 years and I often think about how lucky I am to have found someone so compatible. 

Thanks Lori - I love you.
 J