I never would have believed in Love At First Sight, yet it happened to me. It wasn’t what I thought it would be, in fact I hardly thought at all while it was happening. I simply knew what it was. It was in December of 2009 during the annual Historic Oakwood Candlelight Tour in Raleigh, NC where I was living at the time. When I walked into the kitchen of a home on tour I saw the most beautiful dish I had ever seen. There he was - an outdoorsy looking male waiting for us tour-goers to file into the room to tell us what a tour guide tells.
“This is the kitchen,” he announced which made me smile as it was rather obvious, given the sink, refrigerator and stove and all. He continued, “ Historically kitchens were built separate from the rest of the house. This was to prevent burning the house down while cooking dinner.” After some chuckles from his audience he pointed out some other features I didn’t listen to. The volume had been turned down in my head while the visuals brightened from black and white to color. When he indicated a door in which to exit through the kitchen garden and be on our way to the next house on tour, I stayed put. The next group came in, assembled and he repeated his script, this time with a smile matching my own. I hardly listened once more. Upon indicating the exit to this group, I lingered just long enough so as not to creep the handsome tour-guide out.
With all acts of volunteerism come small rewards, and in this case a potluck after-party was in store for all the tour-guides. I myself had been a tour guide in one of the homes and naturally hoped to see the man who had piqued my interest. When I walked into the hosting home, my eyes searched the crowded room and landed on him. There he was at the head of a table, not talking to anyone. Beside him was the woman who had been in the room adjacent to the kitchen he had hosted. Girlfriend? Well, he was just sitting there looking as cute as ever, and so girlfriend or no girlfriend, I approached him with an extended hand. He took it. “So nice to have met you, ” I said holding his gaze and smiling “I really enjoyed it.” While holding his warm hand in mine, his face beamed. Releasing his hand I joined my friends at a table across the room, and forgot about him for just a little while. When I looked over at his table it was the nuzzling he was doing with the woman that gave them away. “I sure hope he gets lucky tonight” i thought as I made an early exit. And that was that. I never saw him again.
As December crept towards Christmas, I envisioned a time of quiet contemplation where I could be at home with my thoughts. My tumultuous marriage to a scornful man was ending, but first it had to drag on for a full year of separation according to the law. This torture was nothing compared to my marriage. As much as it was over, marriage had been a port, a place that harbored what makes societies a society. Home. We had friends over and family dinners and we put up decorations and lights. I awoke in my little apartment in Historic Oakwood and didn’t hear the usual traffic. I heard nothing. No knocks on the door for Christmas breakfast, no rushing into the kitchen to check on the cooking meal. Nothing. There was just me, myself and I, and I was just getting to know that person.
Before the Christmas of 2009 I had counted the Christmas of 1983 as my loneliest. It was in Tucson, AZ when I couldn’t go home to my parents house like all the years before. I went to bed on Christmas Eve without Christmas Eve dinner, and I woke up on Christmas morning without Christmas breakfast and the surprises I used to find in my Christmas Stocking. However, that afternoon I attended a dinner hosted by the Lesbian who owned a coffee shop, along with an Indian Shaman, a percussionist named Jo Jo and her young son, an artist and professor at the University of Arizona, her biker boyfriend, and his two friends who also rode Harley Davidson bikes, so it wasn’t so bad. The shaman passed around a pipe filled with tobacco and Daturra root and someone else passed around the red wine. We were misfits, but we were not alone.
Christmas 2009 was the new winner for the loneliest time ever. On that day I asked myself what I really wanted and I discovered I wanted love - love between a man and a woman. I wanted love without knowing the first thing about it. My first marriage had been a shotgun wedding - yep - I had been pregnant. My second marriage was convenient - yep - he had money. After my second divorce my Mother said to me, “You married the first time for lust and the second time for money. Maybe the third time will be for real.” What she meant was for real - true love and all that. “You need a real man,” she told me. “Well they’re hard to come by” I told her.
It was on one of my neighborhood walks, on April 11, 2010, a beautiful warm and sunlit Raleigh, NC day, that he whizzes by on his bike. I waved with one of those “it’s good to be out in this kind of weather and not at a 9 - 5 job” sort of wave. He continued onto the stop sign, hesitated, and then turned around. He approached me and stopped, asking “Where you involved in the Candlelight tour?” I didn’t recognize him until he removed his helmet and sunglasses. “Oh it’s him!” I thought,“It’s the dish I met in the kitchen.” He tells me that he is now single, has been for two months, hasn’t stopped thinking about me. “My name is Van” he says. “I’m Kat” I reply taking his hand once more and giving it a small shake. “Can I please have your telephone number?” he asks. Well of course.
I would say the “rest is history” but for the drama that links together that day to this one. In short, Van moved to Newport News from Raleigh and I followed him nine months later. I would say “the rest is history” except there are some many good stories to tell! “Love moves mountains,” the saying goes, and it managed to move me here from Raleigh, my home of twenty-two years and the local for my business Rosehips Beauty since 2005. With that said, my business is moving to a perfect place in a historic area of Newport News, where a slice of heaven called Hilton Village exists. People who live near there can look forward to Organic Makeup , and Organic Skincare Consultations. Peeps who follow my blog can enjoy the process. Check out my website www.rosehipsbeauty.com and stay in touch.
