For the past 18 years, I dedicated my life to my daughter, work and school. I dated, but I did not want to get into a serious relationship until my daughter was ready for college.  In the past, I kissed a lot of toads and I knew if I wanted to find my Prince I would have to go to another pond, so I registered at e-harmony.  I sorted through hundreds of profiles that were considered a “match”. I treated them the same way I treat my resumes at work. I went through a process of elimination and went on a few dates, similar to interviews. I then found Roger. Our e-mails went well, so we escalated to the next level which was the phone conversations. Roger thought I blew him off because I did not call for a few days. What really happened is that I woke up In the middle of the night with severe stomach pain and my daughter rushed me to the hospital where I had emergency surgery to remove my gallbladder.  The first night I returned from the hospital, my daughter encouraged me to call Roger. Because I was off work recuperating for the next couple of weeks, I had time to talk to Roger on the phone for hours. I thought this guy is too good to be true. Our conversations just flowed and I would get butterflies waiting for him to call again. Our first date was incredible and my skeptical side kept saying this is too good to be true.  The only thing I can say now is that 3 1/2 years later, each day gets better and better. Roger is my soul mate, best friend, confidant, travel buddy and so much more.

I got to a point in my life where I was looking for my soul mate, but was having great difficulties in finding that right person. Actually the search was very bad. I tried several avenues to meet people, but l had little time to do so. I started using websites to meet people. You name it, I think that I was on it. I met a few people online, but it just got worse (i.e. the women were crazy, weird or just not my type) It was so bad that I thought about becoming a hermit and living my life by myself.

That all changed on October 15, 2008. I received a notice on e-Harmony that someone wanted to make contact with me. I was at a point where I was not responding to anyone, but I looked at her profile and loved her writing it caught my eye. I was hoping that someone did not write it for her, but decided to take a chance and responded back.

Our first conversation went rather well, but then she didn't call me back (I couldn't call her because her number was blocked) so I thought that she blew me off. Two or three days later she finally called me and we had another great conversation. At the time I was starting a new position at Customs and Border Protection and had to fly out to DC, then to Florida. We continued talking every night I was there. Our talks lasted for hours and I thought this was too good to be true. The last of our conversations went well enough that we decided to meet when I got back to San Deigo.

November 4th was a very nerve racking day. I wanted to make sure that everything was right, but my stomach was telling me otherwise. When I arrived (early by the way) at the Spaghetti Factory in San Marcos. I got to see this beautiful woman walk up to me and introduce herself and we started our first date. It was wonderful!! Later we went down to Carlsbad, took a walk on the beach. We also shared our first kiss, which honestly felt like it stopped time. We have been together ever since.

By the way, I was the one to say "I love you" first. It was on a ride to Christie's "All Shook up" play. When I said it, it surprised her so much that she almost crashed the car.