7 days

Friday, November 6, 2009





overlooking the small marshy area just above the crescent beach

At the end of a long, long day
There is not much more to say then love
I'm so glad I met you

Royal Wood

If you know me well, you'll know that I am a heart on sleeve kind of girl.

Originally I loved this song because it expressed the huge and simple love that I felt for my big red dog Jake. Now suddenly it has added meaning. The jigs up, after a month of M. Universe pelting me with a series of larger and larger good things she's finally knocked me down with the ultimate good thing. I have fallen ... truly, madly, deeply ... in one week, 7 days and I feel as if I've been run over by the most beautiful train. Turns out that the cowboy and I were two souls and hearts drifting around endlessly in a fog of resignation, in a blinding suffocatingly thick this is how my life is and always will be - so get used to it ! fog of acceptance.

You know what they always say ... just when you least expect it.

Well those sturdy rafts we each were floating on, drifted out of that fog and smacked into each other in a rather dramatic fashion one sunny September evening in the park. When I went home that night I couldn't stop thinking about him and his tears. I decided to be bold, on Tuesday I sent him a card - this image and a note about how sorry I was about his dog Abby, I told him more about my own grief and that I hoped we'd meet again in the park one day. I didn't sign my last name or write a return address because I did not want him to feel obligation but I hoped to make an impression.

I waited and nothing happened.

Each evening at the same time Winn and I would go for our walk down into the park and much to my dismay no cowboys with chocolate puppies ever came running toward us in slow motion. How could that be ? I had felt such a strong connection. I guessed I'd been wrong - I'd been very wrong many times before. Nearly two weeks later Sue from the post office, Sue who I power walk with every lunch that it's not pouring rain, called me and said with a lilt in her voice he hasn't picked up his mail. He hadn't yet received the card.

Hallelujah and some rejoicing from 29 Black Street.

And then he called, the day he finally went to the post office and found my card. He left me a wonderfully kind and polite thank you message. It sounded nothing but platonic and there were no questions asked, no reason really for me to call him back. I archived the message and listened to it many more times than I would ever admit to.

Nearly a month passed. No more calls, no cowboy sightings. More fog, more resignation tinged with sadness and melancholy rolled in thick again. I wondered if I wasn't being a tad dramatic and then I reminded myself that I'm allowed, it's OK to be dramatic - girlfriend you do forget from time to time that you are a human being. On our lunch time walks through pastures filled with black and white cows, walking fast toward the ocean Sue allowed me to babble on about the cowboy she listened and made wishes for me, like good friends do.

Last Thursday afternoon, back at the TTD after our lovely energizing walk and chat through hay fields Sue called me and said Guess what I just did ? She had called the cowboy. She had decided a little overt matchmaking was required. She and I chatted for 10 mins or so as she told me about their conversation, what she said to him and how he had reacted to her little bug in his ear with instant immense delight and enthusiasm. When Sue and I said goodbye and I hung up the phone there was a message waiting for me from the cowboy.

That was 7 days ago yesterday, our lives immediately became tangled together.

19 comments:

  1. Susan, this is wonderful. I am a heart-on-the-sleeve kind of girl, too. A long time ago, when I first met my husband, I too sent him a card and that is what brought him around. I think it's great that you met a fellow dog lover.

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  2. I'm thinking you owe Sue big time.

    Thanks for giving me a reason to have a big stupid grin on my face today. I certainly needed it after a pretty discouraging week.

    Warm puppy glow.

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  3. yippe ki oh ki aaaaaaay!!! i checked your blog early this morning and you hadn't posted yet and i was a bit worried about you, the gal who always awakes at 5:00 am to post dreamy photos and pour your heart out to m. universe. i said to myself something is up with our sweet friend susan. and i was right!! 7 days and counting; i'm counting every heart-felt one of them with you. happy, happy, happy for you!!!

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  4. I love a good romance:)
    So happy it is yours, xoxox

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  5. YAY! Take Sue out for dinner. So happy you and the cowboy have connected. YEHAW!!!!! xoxo Pam

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  6. Well, this has just simply made my day!
    I'm supposed to be cooking for a dinner party tonight, but I know I'm going to be dreadfully distracted! I am so incredibly happy for you. And for Winnie!

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  7. Oh Susan: nothing grabs me quite as hard as "truly, madly, deeply"!
    God bless all!

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  8. I am frantically excited for you - NOTHING beats the flutters one feels over a truly magical cowboy encounter! I love the smile that I "hear" in this post and the glow that I know is on your face!

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  9. You drew me in with the Royal Wood lyrics. I love that song so.

    Magically, I fell in love in a swift 7 days in N.S. too with a prairie fellow + now here I am on the Prairie with that same man 13 years later...ours was a correspondence courtship

    + everyday we dream of ways to get me back home, of course he'll come along too!

    somedays I even dream about buying your house, not sure what we could do in P.

    so happy for your happiness...i'm a lurker, but a good love story always draws me in...

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  10. Oh yes .. isn't it wonderful - and always when you least expect it.

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  11. I am so happy, with watery eyes! Can only imagine how Sue must be feeling.You've made my day.x

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  12. Yippee Skippy (Susan)!!! I also love that song. I gave my husband a note and invited him on a picnic + are now married 24 years...oh, and the BEST thing was he showed up for the picnic with a little newfie puppy he borrowed for the day!!!
    Tail Wags to All.
    ~Moose

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  13. OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!!! Truly madly deeply I'm so excited over the moon ecstatic for you and cowboy!!!! Hip hip hooray, yippee ty yay yo, and other similar sentiments. I'm so happy so so happy to read this. Lump in my throat, tears in the eyes, huge smile on face, the whole enchilada. OMG. So happy for you.

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  14. Susan i'm soooo glad that you met this dog loving cowboy!
    I've been reading your daily entries for a while but never posted. Today i felt so happy for you just had to write. You and the cowboy were destined to meet and i'm thrilled for the both of you.
    Your post today made my day.
    I love dogs too; unfortunately don't have one anymore but i do have my cat thank God, don't know what i'd do without him.
    Lorraine in B.C.

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  15. Just cannot express how happy this made me - for you.

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  16. Hope springs eternally...glad your brook is babbling!

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  17. Oh Susan, I am truly happy for you.
    It does seem to happen when you least expect it, doesn't it?

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  18. Wow, wow, wow, I am crying. Wow. Seriously--I have goosebumps all over. I feel in love jsut reading your words. What a beautiful post. I an only imagine what she ssd.

    Looking for the man adn dog made me think of "You've Got Mail" --romantic longing.

    BTW, LOVE this song: Royal Wood's I'm So Glad. I;ve not heard it before. That guy sure can sing! Velvety.

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  19. :)
    Gorgeous story...Kinda need a cowboy here too. Though not yet...Maybe in the Fall... ;)
    Thank you Susan, for sharing this with me!
    xo

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