Vinnie's Version

Mr. Romance and Me - The Prequel!

After reading my first blog, my husband reminded me that 11 years prior to our meeting via the BBS, we’d actually met before. I confess that to this day, I have absolutely no recollection of this, but I CAN confirm the details... Here's his version:

Vinnie: “I used to hang out at the local Chess Club and the players would take turns picking up refreshments for everyone. One evening it was my turn, so I went to this doughnut shop just around the corner. There was a line-up, and when I finally got to the front of the line, I saw this nice looking girl working alone behind the counter. I wanted to hang out there longer, but it was hectic and she was busy. Clearly she was inexperienced, but to me she looked tremendous. Unfortunately that day I didn’t look any better than some bum stepping out from under a bridge. I had a beard and was really scrawny and scruffy. 

"So I placed my order. Like I said, she was really inexperienced behind the counter - but she was beautiful. I returned the next evening hoping to see the same girl again, and to my disappointment, she was not there. I kept going back, day after day after day, but she was no longer there. I was broken-hearted.

“Years later I met this girl by chance through an online BBS. She seemed vaguely familiar, and I never forget a face. When we were in the ‘getting to know you’ stage, it came up in conversation that she’d lived near the Chess Club for a short time. My mind did a small leap and I asked her if she’d ever worked at that doughnut shop. She said she had – but for one night only! When she showed me pictures of her from that time, it clicked that for sure, it was her.”

I was stunned when he told that I was his mystery crush - although all the facts fit. I had worked there for one night in 1982. I'd been petrified about having to work the graveyard shift, especially since it was in a somewhat seedy neighbourhood. So I asked two guys who lived in my building up the street, to sit at the counter and keep me company during my shift, which they readily agreed to, in exchange for endless cups of coffee, which I readily agree to. I was as frazzled as Lucy and Ethel in the chocolate factory TV episode and I quit the next morning. 

Unfortunately that’s all I remember of that fateful night. Thank heavens we finally met (again!) in 1993. We both firmly believe it was fate that brought us together, and here's the evidence:

We met 11 years after our initial meeting. 11 happens to be my favourite number.

My name’s Joyce. He’s from a small Italian village called Gioia, pronounced Joya.

His surname is D’Aprile which translates to ‘of April’. Can you guess when my birthday is? 

Vinnie’s name translated from the Italian means ‘to conquer’. I had an Uncle ‘Victor’.  

I’m a matzo ball, he’s a meatball. Both delicious menu choices!

Upon hearing this, a friend exclaimed, “You two are definitely Bashert!” (Bashert means Destiny in Yiddish.)

I taped my husband recounting his version of how we met, (for this blog) the other night. Afterwards I noticed the digital counter on my tape-recorder displaying this: 

 11/11

There's that number again - twice!

Coincidence? Perhaps. Synchronicity? Absolutely!

Coincidence occurs when something uncanny, accidental and unexpected happens under conditions named, but not under a defined relationship. /Wikipedia

Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events that are apparently causally unrelated or unlikely to occur together by chance and that are observed to occur together in a meaningful manner. /Wikipedia

Picture courtesy of Google Images