As the end of February draws near, I\u2019ve been finding myself staying
up later and sleeping badly. This happens to me every year. March should be
a happy month for me because Gale\u2019s birthday is in about 2 weeks and I
always get excited about that. The problem is that the anniversary of Annie\u2019s
death is just a few days apart from that day on which I should focus all my
attention and happiness, and I always try my best to make that a great day
for Gale. I\u2019ve never mentioned to Gale how close the dates coincide because
I don\u2019t want to ruin her own special day. I find it so unfair and ironic that
Annie met every insignificant girlfriend I ever had for like ten years as I
struggled to find love, but passed away before she could ever meet Gale, my
wife. And what really kills me is that they would have loved each other.
Annie was always fascinated by my relationships and if I met someone she
would throw herself heart and soul into getting to know them, taking them to
lunch while I was working, going shopping, etc. she would get so frustrated
that my relationships never lasted. Annie was beautiful and quite charismatic
so whenever I did get into a relationship where the girl had insecurities, it
seemed as if issues about my friendship with Annie would arise. And I\u2019ll
admit it was a strange relationship, but you would have to know the whole
story to understand. As my writing improves eventually I will write my next
book about that time in my life because it really did change everything about
me and taught me that anything is possible if you put your heart into it, but
most of all because Annie\u2019s story needs to be told. She was unique,
misunderstood, artistic, and so full of love, and her story would make for
incredible reading and perhaps heal some of the pain I still feel from her
death.

Annie used to tell me that when I met the right one and got married
that she would become her best friend and that I would have to add an extra
room in the house so she could always visit and they could go shopping and
do other things. She told me that my wife would become the sister she
always wanted. My wife and I love to travel around in search of little
boutiques that sell neat home d\u00e9cor or just eclectic items and Annie loved to
do the same thing. She had a knack for finding the coolest places. Annie
used to drag me to Coventry in Cleveland and to all the latest galleries in
Tremont. She seemed to personally know every significant artist in greater
Cleveland and insisted that I accompany her to showings and exhibitions.
Gale and Annie would have had so much fun together. And she would have
adored Brittney, my stepdaughter who is just so cool with a great personality
to match.

got to experience it before she died and that just kills me inside. The few
boyfriends that Annie had during the ten years that I knew her were all artsy
types and each short relationship failed. I\u2019d find her knocking at my door
crying in the middle of the night. She had the worst taste in men. One of her
boyfriends was directing a play. Annie would take the members of the cast
out to lunch since none of them ever had any money and Annie had a great
job. She became best friends with the lead actress. Her boyfriend was
casting \u201cA funny thing happened on the way to the forum\u201d at Kent State
University. Everything seemed to be going right with this boy. She even
moved in with him and bought him a big screen TV. He seemed nice enough
when I met him. But one day she took a half-day off of work to spend time
with him, came home, and found him in bed with the same girl he had cast
to play the lead, the same girl that Annie had befriended. She spent a week at
my house after that episode. Then there was the \u201cpretty boy\u201d; I can\u2019t
remember his name. I knew he was trouble from the start, but Annie was so
giddy talking about him, that I told myself to not butt in even though
everything about this guy said \u201cPlayer\u201d. He was really handsome, his hair
shoulder length, a cool looking goatee, very young, actually younger than
Annie by a couple of years. He was a sophomore at KSU where Annie\u2019s
work had sent her to attend classes and I swear every time I met them at
Brady\u2019s caf\u00e9 for lunch, five or six girls would be waving at him or saying
hello and glaring at Annie. I finally mentioned it to her, but she insisted that
he was just \u201cfriendly\u201d and that his charisma attracted girls but she could deal
with it because he had told her that he loved her. Annie told me that I was
letting my jaded views on love cloud my judgment and that I should give
him a chance. This time at least when she found out that he was cheating,
she didn\u2019t catch them in bed. At that point our friendship evolved into
something truly special. We had constant discussions about love and what it
truly meant. We searched the personals, laughing at the stupid ads, and
marveling at how many desperate people there were out there looking for
love. She began to do everything she could think of to turn my views around
on how I looked at life and love, and the miraculous thing about it is she
succeeded and I can never thank her enough for giving me a chance to be
happy. I miss her friendship so badly. Gale\u2019s personality would have meshed
so perfectly with Annie\u2019s because each of them shared so many traits,
always happy and laughing, a great sense of humor, a million little things it
seems.I\u2019m rambling like I tend to do when I get sad. It\u2019s really going to be