January 1, 2001 was the official start of the new millenium - and for me it was really the start of a new life. My marriage with Lisa came to a somewhat abrupt ending just a couple months before and I was now embarking on a new and serious relationship with Carolyn. With wreckless abandon, we dove headlong into a new life together. In retrospect, of course, we probably moved a bit too fast. We were both so genuinely pleased to have a partner that we were so attracted to on numerous levels, that we overlooked most of our differences - both in our personalities and common interests. As time went on, we found we were polar opposites in so many things, it was almost outrageous: Republican vs. Democrat, Catholic vs. Protestant, health food vs. junk food, country vs. rock ‘n’ roll, teetotaller vs. imbiber, chick flick vs. anything else…you get the picture. But for now, all of this discovery lay ahead of us.
We spent New Years together going into 2001 at a party attended by most of Carolyn’s family at the home of her friends Shelley and Bob. Even at this early point in our relationship, there was some friction between us when it came to drinking. I wasn’t a heavy drinker by any stretch of the imagination, but Carolyn was deadset against any form of drinking - which was hard for me to accept since most of her family members drank. This particular party was filled with drinking - even by some of the little kids - so there was some bickering among family members as the party got wilder. As far as it went, I had a good time though - and can still remember the gymnastics competition between Ashleigh and Carolyn’s younger brother Michael.
Not our most flattering photo, but hey…who looks their best on New Years Day?
New Years day of 2001 was spent at Jim and Jan’s. As you can see by the photos above taken that day, we already looked like a made-to-order family…and felt like one. One of our first orders of business as a new couple was to scout for a church home that we agreed on. We attended services at the Beavercreek Church of the Brethren (my childhood church), and the Church of the Ascension (where Carolyn’s family as well as many of the Murphys from my side of the family attended) - before we finally settled on the least likely of choices: The Bear Creek Church of the Brethren.
My Dad and Uncle Bill & Aunt Dottie attended here, but other than that, we really didn’t know anyone very well. Also it was about 30 minutes away from my house - the furthest church from out of our house out of the three options. But it was here that we both agreed that we got the most out of the services we attended. We soon became very active and would attend both Sunday School and services - as well as volunteering in the nursery. As a rule of thumb, we called this our church home, although we would sometimes go to Ascension for special occasions.
Carolyn and I were spending almost all of our time together, but she didn’t officially move into my house - bringing all of her things with her - until late January. As if my marital situation wasn’t enough, there was another big change that would prompt her to find justification for moving in before my divorce was final. Although I had shared parenting (joint custody) of Ashleigh, it soon became obvious that things had gotten out of control where Ashleigh was living with Christi and Jackie. The parties (no-good dirty bums, to put it nicely) who would hang out at their house made it unacceptable for Ashleigh or Briana to stay there any longer.
Therefore, one Saturday morning I just drove over there with Carolyn and we took the kids. That was that. Ashleigh has lived with me ever since. While we were completely willing to keep Briana safe at my house, Billy and Jill quickly stepped up and took Briana into their custody after she had stayed at my place for a couple of weeks. I can fondly remember the cold winter mornings, getting up and getting the girls off to school, and then running up to Ashleigh’s bedroom window to watch these adorable girls traipse off in their winter coats as they trod the snow-covered street to the bus stop. Before long, Carolyn and I would resume contact with Billy and Jill and made sure that the girls could spend as much time together as possible. We were all fortunate that things worked out as well as they eventually did, but there was some ongoing chaos for a few months as we all made the transition.
February brought about even more changes to our daily lives. After leaving her position at the Mony Group, Carolyn began a new job at Howell Rescue Systems, sellers of extrication equipment mostly used by fire departments. Her Mom had long worked there - and now Carolyn was joining the ranks in a secretarial position. Carolyn was also a licensed Massage Therapist and immediately set about converting my computer room to an office where she could operate her part-time massage business out of the house.
But the biggest thing to shake up my life was the gift Carolyn gave to me for Valentine’s Day in 2001 - my first DVD player. I had long held out on purchasing one, thinking that laserdiscs had been the ultimate in collecting pristine-looking films. However, it had been several years since I had actively collected them, opting instead to amass inferior VHS tapes - some original, but mostly copies of laserdiscs. When I asked Carolyn to get me a DVD player, my original intention was to collect only select groups of films (such as the Disney animated classics) - but those who know me will not be surprised to learn that my collection has now grown to more than 1600 films and 250 seasons of TV shows on DVD. Incidentally, the first DVD I purchased was Men of Honor - to kick off my Robert DeNiro Collection.
I was coasting along and faithfully still holding my Sons of the Desert meetings at this point, although my interest had waned somewhat. There was still no newsletter and I would generally call folks a few days before and let them know that I would be holding a meeting. The film program was handed out on a leaflet entitled Tonight’s Film Program. It would be a year before I would become re-energized and take the A-Haunting We Will Go Tent to heights it had never enjoyed before. The first two meetings of the year were held at my place on February 4 (a Valentine’s Day themed meeting) and on February 25 (featuring Pardon Us).
The night before our February tent meeting, Saturday, February 24, Carolyn, Ashleigh, and I attended a little party at Planks sports bar in Columbus. The party was arranged by Denise ostensibly to celebrate Aaron’s upcoming birthday on the 26th. Unbeknownst to Denise, Aaron had arranged to gather even more friends and surprise her with an engagement party. Denise was skeptical of the ruse from the start, but went along good-naturedly.
Aaron and Denise: new fiancees
The original plan was to propose before the party and then bring her directly to the party - which she was supposed to think was for him. I know it all sounds confusing…and didn’t quite have the intended impact, especially after Aaron got nervous about the whole thing and just went ahead and proposed a couple of days earlier! Carolyn was a little upset with me because I refused to wear my hair feathered to the party like she wanted. I compromised and told her that I would flirt with her throughout the evening, but I didn’t live up to that either. Gee, relationships were hard!
Ash, Carolyn, and me at Denise and Aaron’s party, seated with Susan, Charles, Karen, and Joe. My hair was kind-of feathered…
The new millineum was off to an interesting start…
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