How I Met My Wife

On November 13th, 1999, I married my wife Dawn. It's been a great ride doing life with such an amazing woman. She's beautiful, kind, loving, selfless, and forgiving. She's everything I could want in a wife and everything I don't deserve. I'm grateful to God for her.But it almost didn't happen.In July 1997, I was 2 months removed from finishing college. My dream of working in radio was starting to take shape as I was volunteering at a radio station. I also had 2 other jobs working with a marketing firm and at Albany Medical Center. The hours I was working at 23 years old was insane but I knew I had to do it to achieve my dream. I literally had ZERO days off.One night in mid-July, I got a call from my mother. She began to tell me about this girl she met at a function named Dawn. "You have to meet this girl," Mom said. At this point in my life, I wasn't interested in meeting any women. I had just come out of a relationship a few months earlier, just got out of college, living in my own apartment and chasing the dream of working in the broadcasting industry. But mom kept insisting this was someone special.My mom is a very outgoing woman. She doesn't hold back when she sees an opportunity and when she met Dawn, she knew this was something special.So reluctantly, after saying  "Mom, you are zero for 100 in trying to set me up with women, no thanks." I told her I would think about it. A few days later, I called Dawn. She didn't answer, so I left her a message. "Hey this is Jason Romano, you met my mom Linda the other day at the Regents thing. Wanted to see if you were interested in chatting, maybe get some dinner. Give me a call if you get a chance."A few days passed --- No call back.My mom called me the next day. "Did you hear from her?""No," I said.So of course, my mother, God love her (Nana voice) does what what any crazy mom who is convinced her son is the best thing to ever happen, she calls Dawn and leaves a message. "Hey Dawn, it's Linda. I know Jason called you and you haven't called back. Please don't be frightened by him. He's harmless. I think you two would be perfect. Call him back please."(MOM --- PLEASE STOP!)A couple days later, surprisingly, Dawn called me back. She proceeded to tell me she was out of town for the weekend with friends, thus the reason why she hadn't called me back. (After hearing that message from my mother, I'm still shocked to this day that she called me back.)Needless to say, we talked for about 20 minutes. The conversation went great and we agreed to meet at Friendly's on Wolf Road in Colonie, NY at 6pm on a Thursday Night, July 24 ,1997.In 1997, cell phones weren't really mainstream yet so there wasn't any mobile way to connect with someone. As I mentioned above, one of my 3 jobs was working at a hospital and that allowed me to pay 10 bucks a month for a pager. (You'll see why this is important in a bit.)As 6pm approached on July 24th, I was excited. Blind date. Never seen her before. The only thing I knew was that she had long dark hair, and drove a turquoise Z-24. I remember pulling into Friendly's parking lot driving my 1993 Ford Escort, (real ladies car by the way) excited and ready to meet her.15 minutes later -- no Dawn.30 minutes later -- no Dawn.45 minutes later -- no Dawn.To this day, I'm still not sure why I waited 45 minutes for a woman I had never met. I immediately started getting angry with my mom and how she set me up with someone that basically ditched me before we could even have our first date.Remember when I said I had a pager? Well at about 6:50pm, I got a page from Dawn's number. I drove to the nearest pay phone (remember, no cell phones) and called her. "I'm sorry I'm late," Dawn said. "I can't find the Friendly's." I told her that I had been there for the past 45 minutes waiting for her. (I had to make her feel a little bad) I gave her directions and finally, Dawn drove up and we were able to meet and have dinner.Imagine if I didn't have that pager? Or if I had left after 20 minutes, 30 minutes, even 40 minutes of waiting? We may have never met.The beauty of that day though, was when we sat down to get to know each other. We hit it off. We had so much in common. We liked the same music, TV shows, even sports. It was awesome. I knew then that this was someone I wanted to hang out with.Once dinner was done, I did what any poor 23 year-old kid would do trying to impress his future wife on their very first date. I took the check and said "You good with splitting the bill?"Yes we went dutch on our first date.Yes, I'm an idiot.I can't imagine what she must have been thinking. But a few days later, we went on a 2nd date. And then a 3rd date, 4th date, and soon, we were a couple.Life is funny sometimes. I wasn't looking for a girlfriend at the time I met Dawn. I was so focused on starting my broadcasting career, and figuring out life. And then suddenly, out of nowhere, on a blind date of all places, my life would change forever.18 years later, we're still going strong. We've been married for 16 years. She's more beautiful today than the first day I saw her. We have a beautiful daughter. I have a great job. (yes, I achieved that dream of working in broadcasting) Life is good.One final piece of advice for the single ladies. If a guy ever asks you to go out on a first date. Make him pay. Or better yet, run the other way as fast as you can.DON'T GO DUTCH![embed]https://twitter.com/JasonRomano/status/227880836417060864[/embed]