Almasy - Why not take Almasy?

I have been in love with the same girl for a dozen years. Absolutely not a shadow-of-a-doubt-about-it-good-old-fashioned-head-over-heels in LOVE. When we met, I had been working with her Uncle[he was managing me at the time], and he had told me several times about his niece who was coming into town. He said she was beautiful, smart, and just a really good kid. He told me that he thought we would really hit it off, and that I should ask her to do something when she came out to my show that night. So, I played the gig, and at the end of the night I went out to meet her. However, regardless of what everyone thinks about me, I am not necessarily the smoothest cat around when it comes to girls[everyone does think that.....right?]which would explain why I was so nervous[and wearing sunglasses indoors after midnight]. I was so nervous in fact, that I didn't have the guts to ask her out on a date. Instead, I told her that her and her sister should come hang out with me and my buddy Dave[Smokey D, my old bass player]at the Valley Fair Amusement Park while they were in town. I mean, I was eighteen after all. Luckily, they agreed and the next day we went to pick them up. We had to drive all the way up to Plymouth, MN to collect them from their Aunt's house, and as luck would have it the sky clouded over and threatened to storm on the way to the Park. Time for plan B. And, when you are a Twin Cities kid from Apple Valley, plan B almost always involves the Mall Of America. I mean it IS the biggest mall in the nation, and women love that stuff. So we wound up at the Mall where we went to see "Face Off"[the John Travolta flick]and I proceeded to[again]wear sunglasses throughout the entire movie. In the pitch-black theater. I think I was in a Roy Orbison phase.......anyway, that[somehow]didn't scare her off, so the next activity involved an indoor Ferris Wheel and a guy[me]with a belly so full of anxiety that I couldn't bring myself to sit next to her. So, I stared at her from across the buggy through my black-out Ray Ban's while Smokey D was left to wonder why he'd been dragged along on this excursion. At evening's end, Melissa told me they were leaving town the next day to fly back home. She gave me her phone number[which I've found out since was something she was certainly NOT accustomed to doing]and told me to call her sometime. Well, apparently I didn't believe her, because I didn't call her. I'm telling you, I thought when she said "you should call me sometime", she meant "ohhhh, you should call me sometime"like, whatever dude-I'm just gonna say the old "you should call me sometime"line because that's just what you say when you've spent your entire evening with someone and his sunglasses and don't want to be rude. In other words, I was clueless. I really couldn't believe my eyes, because this girl was everything I'd privately told God I wanted in a woman, and I just couldn't wrap my brain around the idea that she just might actually want to see me again. But, according to her, she did! Anyway, she went back to Atlanta, and I spent the rest of the year trying to forget her. Which I aaaaalmost did, until her Uncle informed me a year had passed, and she was coming back. Well, we got together again, and it was pretty much over from there. We were inseparable for the remainer of her stay[two weeks!]until it was unfortunately time again for her to return home to Georgia. However, this time when she left, it was as my girlfriend. We lived apart, long-distance for ten years. We flew back and forth hundreds of times, wrote letters, emailed etc. We broke up two or three times throughout that decade, but could not seem to shake the love we felt for each other. I'm telling you I'm talking about real-deal, earth-shaking, honest-to-goodness, the stuff dreams are made of and the kind-everyone-wishes-they-felt, kind of love. I could never really put it into words, actually.......i would die for her. Finally, at 29yrs old, I decided enough was enough and that she was the only one I wanted to be with for the rest of my life. I went ring shopping, and brought her up to the North Shore of Minnesota on her Birthday. There, near dusk in a private cove, I got down on one knee and[trembling]proposed to her while trying not to fall into the water. Her "yes" was THE sweetest sound my ears have ever heard, surely. Shortly after, it became clear that I would have to move and make my home in Atlanta so we could be together. I did, and I have, and have never been happier in all of my life. We are to be Wed this December, and already have many of the details in place including wedding photographers. We were turned on to this amazing award-winning husband/wife team[ALMASY] that does incredible work in Atlanta, and secured them to do our pictures. They asked if we'd like to do an engagement shoot and[even though we've already been engaged for a year and a half!]since we'd never actually had one done, we thought it was a cool idea. So, we did, and here are some of the pics:

I've had a few dreams in my life. Living thus far has taught me that dreams don't always come true. I think, perhaps, it's a rare man who gets what he wants and dreams for out of life but gratefully, in my case, this dream came true. I have learned that if love is meant to be, and if it's the good kind that belongs together and is destined, it will endure all.

- T