What a Long Strange and Wonderful Trip It's Been

In case you haven't guessed, this is Ms. Muse, aka Sheryl Mee MacPhee. 

Seen here on a remote inlet off the coast of the Guanacoste Peninsula. Had you told me in 1988 that she and I, two very young and platonic colleagues at Bozell Advertising in Santa Monica, would be paddling a double kayak deep in a Costa Rican jungle some 40 years later, I would have said you had just taken some ayahuasca.

But life moves in mysterious ways. As the old Yiddish saying goes, "Man has plans, God laughs."

Of course if you had also said this theological bon mot to me, a confirmed atheist, I would have also said you had just taken some industrial strength ayahuasca.

I'll spare you the mushy details, suffice to say that at the suggestion of a fellow Team One copywriter brimming with Irish wisdom, I ventured onto the dating apps after a deep debilitating dive into grief and depression. To be honest, I didn't know what to expect. In fact I encountered the unexpected. Including seeing an ex wife of a close friend and a former boss, who had a fiery marriage with her husband, also an ex boss.

Word to the wise, married couples, particularly in the stressful restaurant industry, have no business being in business together. 

Then I came across the profile of Ms. Muse. 

It had been 35 plus years and I wasn't exactly sure it was the same young woman from Bozell. Brutal confession, I didn't even remember her name. But she responded the next day. She remembered mine. And my job. And my former hairline.  

Like other digital meetings she started asking the usual "interviewing" questions. If you've been on these dating apps you are familiar with this. As well as photo's of bare-chested men holding up fish they caught at Lake Cachuma. 

I didn't see a need for all that since Sheryl and I knew each other in a previous life and suggested we meet in person for a drink and possibly dinner. 

That dinner, at Foothill Restaurant, in Pasadena happened 3 years ago today. The smiling, the laughing, the cajoling happened instantly. Aided in no small part by our waitress Connie, who was given the skinny by Ms. Muse the minute we got there. Their conspiratorial joshing and teasing actually put me at ease and made the night special. Not to mention memorable. And did wonders to cover up the fact that my clothes were all 2 sizes too big.

That was 3 years ago. Since then, we have been to Antigua, Alaska and Costa Rica. And the laughing, smiling, cajoling and the loving has only grown and gotten better. 

That is until she sees this post and a photo that I did not grant her first right of refusal.