Where it all began

Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children, and no theories. John Wilmot, poet and second earl of Rochester uttered those very words some 300 years ago. Words which stand completely upright and true today. I know this, because I became an 'inherited parent' some 4 years ago. You see, I met this girl called Suzanne, and the rest, as they say, is history.

This blog is a story, portrayal, whatever you'd like to call it of those 4 years and eventually I'll catch up to today and actually write a blog, rather than a precursor (I know, precursor is the wrong word to use, but it's my blog, so ner.)

Where DID it begin, oh Paulie? I hear you ask. Well I'll tell you.

"You need a woman. No offense, but you're not the kind of person who can live a single life." Words uttered by Chris, who would become my best man less than a year later. He was right, I did need a woman in my life. I had however spent nearly a year with nobody and had resigned myself to the boyfriend dustbin. You see, I'm an odd character, idiosyncratic, goofy looking, portly; I'm hardly Mr Pitt, and I settled for this, not wishing to change the way I was or looked in a vain effort to attract a mate. No, I thought to myself, she will come, and she will like me for who I am. Except she didn't come, despite my best efforts to seek her out, she was not there. I gave up. Single life can't be that bad, I thought. No, correction, I tried to convince myself despite not believing it for a second. I met a few girls, they liked me, I liked them, and then it flopped, spectacularly. I was no good at this.

Several months passed and I became friends with Steve, someone my own age, someone equally as lonely and resigned. Steve and I spent a fair bit of time together and eventually I ended up being introduced to his friend, who was about to move to Ireland. Suzanne was a divorcee, had a little boy aged 4 and was about to move to Ireland. Three things that, in theory, put her out of the availability circle. Something about her intrigued me though, something about how she interacted with people, how she seemed so comfortable in herself. Not only did this intrigue me, it also attracted me in a way I'd never been attracted to someone before. Weeks passed, and we saw more and more of each other and the reality that she was moving to Ireland struck me hard enough for me to think very carefully about how I actually felt about her. I was smitten, in love if you will, and I felt that if I didn't make a move now, I would lose her to the bouncing Leprechaun's and Guinness. So I told her how I felt. I'll spare you the fodder in between (not that it was fodder of course, should Suzanne be reading this; it was actually a most enjoyable part of my life, but I'm sure nobody is interested in reading it) but the conclusion was that we were married a few months later. Suzy never did move to Ireland, by the way. Their loss my gain!