Girl Of My Dreams

If you managed to read my last post, you'll know that I left you hanging on in suspense concerning a significant event that would literally change my entire life.

This came about because I made a conscious decision to alter my ways. I'd had enough of the drudgery and drunkenness and I understood that following that particular path would basically take me nowhere. I therefore decided to step out of my comfort zone and create change.

I accomplished this by one Friday night moving away from my regular friends, smarting myself up and visiting another area of town. It was there that I tried out some new pubs and bars. I met and talked with a variety of different people, which made me realise that there was so much more to life.

Having already been through a few fruitless relationships, I already knew how I wanted my perfect girl to look like. In my minds eye I visualised her as having short blonde hair, a petite but curvaceous figure and of course very attractive features. Also in addition she’d have to have a good sense of humour, at least to put up with me.

This might have seemed a tall order, especially when I was a bloke that wore scruffy clothes, had a drink issue and suffered with certain anxiety problems. Despite this I firmly held that vision of my perfect girl encapsulated in my mind. All I had to do from then on was hope for the best and patiently wait.

During my 'evening-out' I managed to end up at the local dance hall. After a few more drinks I somehow got talking to this rather attractive young girl and her best friend. After some small talk I sensed that she was rather down in the mouth and feeling dejected.

Further into our conversation, I discovered that she was sad because the relationship with her current boyfriend had just ended. After listening to her story I then made a concerted effort to try and cheer her up with some of my poor pathetic jokes. It seemed to have worked as she giggled away, momentarily forgetting her problems.

I spent the remainder of night trying to lift her mood, I even promised to try and help her get back with her boyfriend, which funny enough cheered her up even more. When it eventually came to the last song of evening I managed to pluck up enough courage to ask her to dance.

For me dancing was an act of courage and was an extremely rare thing for me to become involved in unless of course I was extremely drunk. Any previous excursions onto the dance floor had revealed, not only was I the proud owner of two left feet, but I'd also displayed the rhythm of a drunken butterfly.

  

She excepted my invitation and I muddled my way through. As our slow dance eventually came to an end, I leant over and kissed her on the cheek. It wasn’t a passionate kiss, just enough to acknowledge my interest. I then asked her if there was a chance of us meeting again in the future. At that point I was really expecting her to give some excuse and say sorry but…. however surprisingly enough she agreed upon a date for the following week at exactly the same venue.

Our second meeting was again an enjoyable experience for me, as I slowly began to like this girl more and more. There was still no sign of her boyfriend, which was a definite bonus. I continued making her laugh for most of the evening, with an array of my terrible jokes. Once again, just like our initial meeting, the night finished with a slow dance and the promise of us meeting up again the following week.

In those early days of seeing each other I was never really sure if our relationship would ever last. Lets face it; she was a quietly spoken, gorgeous petite young woman. I on the other hand was a scruffy, overweight, boisterous, beer-drinking bloke - how was that ever going to work out?

To start with I just took each day as it came, with the concern that at anytime she might end it. But to my astonishment it just didn't happen. As the weeks and months progressed we gradually spent more and more time together, mainly as good friends. If nothing else I certainly knew how to make her smile and laugh, which was probably my saving grace.

My pub-mates were becoming less important to me, as my relationship with my new girlfriend continued to blossom. Although there were still regular trips to my local pub, these were becoming less and less frequent. I had other things on my mind and it certainly wasn’t drinking with my buddies.

I guess it must have been six months down the road when something interesting suddenly occurred to me. It was like a light bulb being switched on in my head. I stopped  and paused for a moment and realised....I was actually dating the 'girl of my dreams'.

To bring you up to-date; just in case you hadn't realised or you don't know me - this young woman was Alison, who was later to become my wife and the mother of our two children.