Letter to Jennifer Dec 2021 about Holly and me

When Holly graduated college in 1976, she decided to go to Europe with two girls that were on the tennis team with her. We'd been together 2 years but I didn't want to be the boyfriend left behind so we broke up.

I moved to Chicago and had a good job as a commissioned salesman at a tile store.
My schedule usually put me off at 9 pm, and I would go for a long bike ride.
Winters were brutal but I rode 30 miles after work each night and on my days off I would ride 65 miles down to the Loop and back.

Christmas Eve one night I was down at the Loop, riding over the Chicago river. A fresh snow was falling, There were about 2 inches on the ground, and there was nobody on the street. It was beautiful. Like a fairy land. Mine were the only tracks in the snow.
That's when I realized how terribly lonely I was, and so the next day I drove to Bloomington to spend Christmas with my mother. During that trip I realized how much I missed Holly.

I took a chance and wrote her a letter, and asked her to come to Chicago to live. A few days later I got a letter back saying it's too cold.
She came to visit and just like that, we were back together and my life felt like it was on track.  I was at peace.

She had a job in Bloomington teaching, and I used to take the Friday night flight down to see her. I risked my life on that little commuter plane.

Short while later I quit my job and moved to Bloomington and took a job at Black Lumber on Henderson street in 1980 and 81. I loved that job but it drove me nuts going to the same place every day.
After a year and a half, I quit and moved to California. I knew a couple people there and thought I could get  established and Holly would follow.
After a few months of freeway traffic while fearing fire and earthquake, I decided to go back to college at IU and finish the business degree I never finished.

The same time, Holly made plans to go to a job fair in Houston.
Turns out she took the job in Houston, just as I got enrolled for my last two years of school.
I met her at the airport and wore the suit jacket my father bought me in high school 14 years earlier. It didn't fit. And she laughed when she saw me. I was embarrassed, thinking I was pretty cool standing there in my dusty jacket.
Well anyway, how about that. We were going to be apart again. But this time we decided to stay together, and ran up huge phone bills, talking every night.
We made plans to get married after I finished school in 84, and I would move down to Houston to be with her.

My last summer, I took elective classes in astronomy and anthropology, and they invited me to join the astronomy department. Turns out I was a natural in science, and I weighed the opportunity. And concluded that I would understand whatever they taught but probably could not contribute anything original. My math skills work well for estimating but are not precise. For a lot of reasons I declined.

In the meantime, the wedding was set to happen in Cincinnati where Holly's brother, mother and nieces lived.
I never really met her family. I met her mother once, and she gave me an IQ test lol. She was getting a doctorate in psychology and needed a test subject. I must have passed since she paid for the wedding.

Mostly I'm not very social. I prefer solitary versus mixing with the other human beings. Maybe that's why I spent so many hours riding a bicycle. Bicycling filled me with joy every time I stepped up on it. I suppose it's a lot like Mozart and his piano .... bicycling was my art. It never hurt my joints like basketball and baseball and other sports I played. I even ran cross country in high school. Maybe it's genetic?
I was number two on the team, and kind of a top third of the pack finisher during competitions., but quit mid season. Participating got in the way of other interests.
I delivered the Indianapolis Star starting at 13 and enjoyed the business and my customers. I was always good at hustling work at people's homes.

Anyway the night before the wedding, Holly's Brother Mike came over and said, you better be there tomorrow.
He was joking at first but it finished on a serious note. His family's honor was at stake.
If only he knew how Holly and I matched, and that we always looked for the other and expected to hear each other's voice next to us. Except her family didn't know me and I showed up for the wedding, wearing a better fitting jacket. Actually I was almost late, because my father took me downtown and bought me another suit jacket. He was big on buying suit jackets and showing me how to polish shoes, neither of which were used much in my life as a contractor in Houston.