Telluride is a magical place. It draws in those who need to be there and closes its beautiful jaws around you like the most incredible Venus Flytrap. I got stuck in it long ago and have marveled in the culture of participation since the 90's.

In the spring of 2013 Telluride Theater staged a revival of the rock musical Hair and I was cast as Burger. During the music rehearsals a girl who had been lurking around the edges of my periphery got up to sing 'Air' and absolutely crushed it. She will describe this as the moment my head turned towards her for the first time. She had it; that something special.

We hung around with each other after Hair, and sang a lot of karaoke the following summer. In the fall we were both cast in the Rocky Horror Show and got to spend our evenings dancing around in drag with each other. I guess cross-dressing brings people together because we hooked up that fall.

In my defense of this next section, I am an idiot so don't be shocked when I tell you that I broke up with Caroline in January because I didn't understand what was happening. I was having all these feelings that I wasn't used to and that scared me. This was what I later realized to be, "A stupid thing to do." I, of course, spent the next three years pining for the girl who was unavailable, and very much the object of my desire.

One fine day in the fall of 2016 she became available and I have spent every waking moment since that time doing everything I can to show her that I have learned from my mistakes and if she'll just give me the chance, I will work day and night to prove to her that my love is strong and true and everlasting.
She has so far acquiesced to my request.

And here we are. In the future, I know things that I didn't know before. Like, when you know, you know. And I can tell you, I have been struck by lightning and have lived to do something about it. And she said, "Yes."

For those of you that know me, you might not be surprised when I say I'm a bit of a free spirit. My life has been made up of saying 'yes' to whims that most people would find preposterous. That's how my favorite adventures have all begun. So, when the idea of Telluride popped into my head, it would surprise no one that I was living there two weeks later.

I came to Telluride in search of myself. After an unfortunate bevy of bad boyfriends, I promised myself freedom for my wild woman, my lone wolf. Of course, as these things often go, that's when I saw HIM standing there. In a red wig. Wearing a basketball jersey. Lip-syncing onstage to a song so funny, it had me in tears.

We officially met later that evening at the coffee shop affectionately nicknamed "The Bean". No it wasn't love at first sight. (Or was it? This is up for debate). Actually, as first impressions go, ours left a bitter taste in my mouth. I was unenthusiastic about finding that "The Mishky" (Telluride's name for Eric) would be in the musical with me. I was unenthusiastic about his suits, his cult-like following of adorers, or the way he looked up at me after I sang my song in front of the cast of 'Hair' and told me "I never liked that song until you sang it!" I was especially unenthusiastic that he had taken up residence in my mind and how my heart would flutter when he was near.

As fate would have it, I soon became nanny to his tiny roommate and got to spend more and more time with Eric. I finally met the man behind the mask: A multi-deminsional gypsy vagabond with so many colorful, absurd stories of adventures past that my own adventures seemed like a shopping trip to Walmart in comparison. Naturally, I was hooked.

Like the proud, independent woman I am, I pursued Eric quite relentlessly. I wanted in on the adventure that is The Mishky. Fortunately, running into him was quite easy as his people became my people and our mutual interests over-flowed the center of our Vin Diagram. Unfortunately, it was right about the time I realized I was in love with him that he ended things.

As far as choices go, although initially very upset, I'll never regret us parting ways for a bit as it gave the two of us time to grow. I spent the next 3 years on a very important journey of self-discovery, learning about love, friendship, and partnership in a way that I hadn't been able to before. It was a necessary part of my story. But the palpable connection between Eric and me, well, it was cosmic. And as these things often go, these cosmonauts were sucked back into each others orbits and have collided in a most spectacular way.

For those of you that don't know me, after reading this you might not be surprised to find out that when Eric proposed to me at sunset on a boat in the Bahamas almost exactly 4 years after he broke up with me, although most would say it's preposterous, I said 'yes'. 'Yes' to a lifetime of fun, love, and friendship. And 'yes' to the beginning of our greatest adventure.