How did Tom and I meet? et alia

An anonymous commenter asked how Tom and I met. Sorry, but we didn't "meet cute."

We met the usual way -- through mutual friends in the church. Tom was active in the Chicago parish where a friend of mine was also involved in lay ministries. They had been good friends for many years.The monastery where I lived at the time was in the parish boundaries, but we had our own Masses at the monastery and had no special connection to the parish. I had attended services there a few times, but that was the extent of it.

There was another Carmelite community in Hyde Park, however, that was responsible for the parish, and I knew one of the priests from my time as a student in Washington, DC. He also knew Tom.

Tom and those two friends hung out together and eventually I met him through them. We knew one another as part of an extended group of friends for some months before I eventually left the monastery for reasons unconnected with Tom. It was some time later that we became a couple, or as I used to say, a pair.

Part of the small world of all this is that Tom had been one of the attorneys involved in selling the property where I lived to the Carmelites a couple of years before I moved there. And I knew his former father-in-law because he attended programs that I helped organize for the Catholic non-profit I worked for at the University of Chicago. In some ways, it was surprising Tom and I had not met one another long before we did. And Tom is distantly related through his mother to Edith Stein [St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross], the Carmelite saint for whom the Chicago house where I had lived was named and whose canonization I attended in Rome shortly after I moved into the Chicago community.

On another topic ...

This weekend is Automotion in the Dells, a car show of sorts that fills the town and surrounding areas with noisy vehicles, some classic and some just clunkers. It is a treasure trove for the 50,000 car lovers who show up and for local law enforcement, who make most of their monthly quota of tickets in the 48 hours of the event.

We took the opportunity to leave town and went to Madison. We went to Olbrich Gardens for a bonsai show, voted on our favorite tree and walked around the grounds. It was cloudy, but otherwise a nice day to be out and about. I was amazed at how many things were in bloom. Then over to the west side for Indian food, an early birthday celebration since Tom will be busy next week when the day rolls around. The food was great, but the tables are close together and the guy at the next table is one of those people who go on and on and on and on  and on and on at full volume and there is no way to ignore him or have much of a conversation of your own. But the food was still great and I got that part of my birthday wish fulfilled.

And Anonymous, glad you enjoy the blog!