I'm going to tell you everything about her

She's smart. She's bilingual. She's a VP at an investment bank. She analyzes risk for a living. She's rational and analytical, but with a streak of impetuousness, like me.

She's clever and sharp, with an eye for detail. She said when we started dating she noted that my apartment was clean. She noted that my fingernails were trimmed.

She's funny. When she smiles it makes me smile. When she laughs it makes me laugh.

She's naturally pretty. She has soft brown eyes, a gentle smile, smooth skin. She looks like she's 29. She wears almost no make-up, and only one piece of jewelry at a time--earrings or a necklace, but never both. She dresses professionally for work, but looks just as elegant when she wears jeans and a sweater. She has no pretensions. 

She likes to stay fit, likes to eat healthy. She doesn't smoke. She drinks in moderation, a glass of wine or shares a beer with me.

Then there are the deeper things.

She is family oriented. She loves her parents and her brother, wants them to be happy. She likes and respects Samuel and Ethan. She'd like to have a family of her own.

She has a kind heart. She cares about other people. She volunteers with her church. She is humble, gracious, devout.

She is joyful and adventurous. Her exuberance is childlike. She jumps up and down when she bowls a strike. When she hasn't seen me for two days she kisses me like she hasn't seen me in a month. When she asked me to join her on a business trip to Miami, she said, "And maybe for the weekend, maybe we could go to Orlando and...you know, maybe go to Disney World or something? Only if you want to."

(We held hands while we watched the fireworks over the Magic Kingdom.) 

She likes dogs and convertibles and camping and beaches and BBQ and pecan pie.

She loves me for who I am.

Why am I telling you this?

Because I'm happy, and I want to talk about her, and I think she's wonderful.

Because we both deserve this. We've both been blown a bit by the gales of life. Neither of us is where we thought we'd be at the end of Act 2. But we've been given another chance to write Act 3. And it's going to be a love story, damn it.