Acquaintances..not forgotten

While I was out yesterday I ran into someone I had not seen for 8 years! I knew this person when I was engaged to her brother-in-law. It's kind of a long story....so I will write a condensed version. You see after I moved to NH the person I moved here with turned out to be ...well...not the same person he was in NY. So we parted ways. I rented a cute little chalet in a small New England town. It was just Britt and me, good thing, did I mention it was a very small chalet. Anyway, the man I rented the chalet from had 3 boys , 2 of them married and the third, also the oldest, 36 at the time(I think ?) still lived at home. Their house happened to be on the same driveway as the chalet. I'm pretty sure the moment the Dad (call him Gordon) laid eyes on me he began planning his son Mark's future. Long story short Mark and I met, I cleaned his office. Soon after we went out on a date and with in 6 months we were on top of Mount Ascutney with a bottle of wine and a diamond rind (a WOW ring). Somewhere in that six months I met Jen....super sweet, lots of fun... a sister type person. We hit it off great. She would take Britt and go shopping. She was, like the rest of the family, very supportive of Mark and I. Well, I took Mark to NY to meet my family. Upon our return to NH Mark announced that he felt that my family maybe wasn't for him and he didn't see himself ever visiting NY again. HMMMMM....at this point I'm thinking I really should re-examine why I am getting married. With very little thought I decided NOT to get married I returned the ring (VERY difficult) and moved out of the chalet...pretty much all in the same day. I have not seen or spoken to Mark since. I saw Gordon in Wal Mart and made a point to speak to him. We actually had a very nice conversation. However through all of this the person I missed the most and wondered about the most was Jennifer. And yesterday I saw her, today she came to playgroup...she only lives a few miles away. I am so happy!!!!! It also turns out that Jen's sister is married to our good friends Father. So there are all kinds of neat connections.

I have always felt that acquaintances are NOT disposable. I do try to stay in touch with people I meet. Even if It has been years..I still say hello when I see old acquaintances. Sometimes I need a reminder of their name and they mine. Yet I always say hello.