Music Found at The Mega Music Archive

Okay, everybody! I'm finally going to do it, ok?!

The massive letter campaign has finally worked!! ;)

I was born a long time ago, in the year of the Snake, not the Rat,

and I've done a few things over the years; Struggling as an actor in summer theater,

living in France as a nanny (where I performed my own one-man show in front of a massive

audience of 8 people), going off to L.A. to make it as a movie star, and learning computers,

of all things, while I was there, which led me back to Texas, then finally back home to Bryan,

where we live now.

Well, between France and L.A., I came back to Bryan long enough to get my best

friend hitched to the crazy woman he'd been living with since shortly after

I'd gone to France. At the reception, the neighbor of the aforementioned

crazy woman happened to be a rather cute and single-looking woman.

Being at my most suave, seeing as how I was in a tux and all, I went up to her

and struck up a conversation. It went pretty well until this guy showed up

and someone else asked if they were married. The cute young lady I'd been making

just wonderful time with then announced that they'd been married for two wonderful years!

I guess she must have seen the incredibly disappointed look in my eyes, then,

because she put her hand on my arm and told me that it was just a joke, he was actually

her brother. Talk about your roller-coaster ride...

Anyway, we kept talking and her brother got impatient and finally made her leave.

I asked my best friend about that lady, and he told me that she was his next-door neighbor,

had no boyfriend, and he could come up with any number of excuses for me

to go over and meet her.

Unfortunately, I'd already made my plans to move to L.A.! Curse the fates!

L.A. proved to be less than dazzling for my showbiz career, but the day jobs

I held did teach me about computers, and I eventually went into that line full-time.

After a couple of years, I got homesick, and moved to Dallas to live with my sister

and her family. Well, after about a year of that, they moved back to Bryan,

leaving me all alone! It was ok, though, because I became a major karaoke fanatic

while I was there, and my nights were pretty full.

No dates, mind you, but plenty of fun to be had.

So, one day, out of the blue, my sister comes up with an idea to make an internet

publishing company so that all the writers in our circle of friends and family

(and there are a lot) can be published. She needs someone to run it,

and promises to keep a roof over my head while I do it, so I come back home.

The internet business didn't exactly make any money, but we all got jobs at a local

software company (where we all still work), and I got back into the local theater scene.

During a production where I despised the majority of my cast-mates,

they announced that they had found a bar where we could go karaoke.

Finally, they show some class! It had been a while (about a year) since I had left

the karaoke scene in Dallas, so I was eager to get there and rushed over to the bar.

I was the first one to make it there, and there was a pretty sparse crowd.

A couple of people sitting and smoking, an older woman, a man about my age,

and a really cute woman sitting together. I took a seat close to them,

since it was away from the smoke, and as I sat down, the cute woman got up to sing.

I don't remember the song, but I do remember that I was mesmerized by the lady

singing it. And, as she was singing, I got this nagging feeling that I'd

seen her somewhere before. When she was done, I complimented her on her singing,

and she thanked me, and then I got up to sing. I sang "On Broadway", which is one

of my best songs, and she complimented me on my singing. I gave her the line

that she remembers to this day - "Haven't I seen you someplace before?"

- and I could see her thinking to herself, "Geez, that was original"...

a little later, though, I remember. She was the cute young lady at my best friend's

wedding reception from 5 years before, and I told her so. This astounded her - it

hadn't been a line!

I sat with her the rest of the night, and went through a lot of small talk,

and she gave me her number at the end of the night. I was thinking, "Robbie,

boy, you are some major moving stud here"... So, when I called her for a

date the next day, she told me that she didn't want one.

Ouch.

She did tell me that she wanted to be friends (a line I had been used to hearing for YEARS),

and that we should keep seeing each other at karaoke. So, I bit back my disappointment,

and we kept seeing each other at karaoke for the next couple of months.

Then, the karaoke bar closed down! That night, I asked her out again, but she still

told me no. As I left, I went ahead and wrote her off as a love interest...

Maybe a month or two later, though, I was in Wal-Mart, where she worked,

and she dropped a hint that she was still looking for a place to go karaoke,

and that she still had no boyfriend. I played it cool, though, because I didn't want

to look desperate... (yeah, right). A few days later, she called to invite me to

a new karaoke place, and I practically jumped up and down, while still managing to

keep my voice calm, cool, and collected (I'm a pretty good actor, you know.)

So, I went there, and we had a good time, and I asked her out again, and she turned

me down again...(heavy sigh)

So, I decided that I wasn't going to show up at the next karaoke session, because

I didn't need the heartache. So, on the day of karaoke, I was sitting at home relaxing

when her brother calls up and tells me that there's going to be a birthday party

at karaoke for her and that she wants me to come.

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGGGGHHHH!!!

I panicked majorly, and spent the next hour finding a birthday card because

I had no time to get a present. But, I found the perfect card, with a karaoke theme,

and she loved it! She even gave me a hug, which she had never done before.

So, I kept coming back to karaoke, and I would drop into Wal-Mart and buy a pack of

Certs just so that she could check me out, and acted like a major love-struck goof.

Then, on March 11th, 1997, as we were walking out to our cars when karaoke was over,

I told her that a friend of mine was putting on a play, and he had invited me

to a free showing, and would she like to come? She said that if she was going to go,

it would have to be the next night, the 12th, because that was when she was off work.

I told her that, coincidentally, that was the night of the free show. So, she agreed to go out with me.

I skipped all the way to my car.

As you've probably already guessed, that lady was my CAT,

and that's the story of how we met... I promise I'll do more later...

NOTE FROM CAT: Thanks to all the people that helped with the mail campaign to get this story written.

Sweetmamapam even made RAT his own award as a way of saying

"Not bad for the first few words." :) Thanks Sweetmamapam!!

[My Favorite Links] [Free-4-All Links] [Updates!]

Contents of PawPrints- About Us

[CAT's Tale] [RAT's Tale] [Wedding Day Blues]

[Our Wedding] [Our Pets] [Our Future Dreams]

Contents of Journeys of the Spirit-My poetry Page

[A Child Within] [Poems 4 RAT] [Greeting Card Poetry]

Contents of CAT's Fun Page!

[General Trivia Game] [Sports Trivia Game] [Entertainment Trivia Game]

The following is some HTML I already have in place waiting for hubby to fill in

when he gets around to.. THE REST OF THE STORY... :)