Lucky Lottery

What would I do if I won the lottery? I’ve already done it!

Almost 22-1/2 years ago Susan and my paths crossed, and… Bonanza! Lady Luck smiled upon us, mercurial but merciful, luring us into one adventure after another.

We courted across the Atlantic for two years. She was based in Manhattan, and I was based in Paris and Rome. Endless phone calls, emails, letters, poems, and as many rendezvous as we could juggle.

Fast forward four years from our fortuitous summer 2001 meeting to our elopement. “In 2005… we were wed in a traditional Maasai ceremony” at Cottar’s 1920s Camp located at the remote frontier of the “Maasai Mara in Kenya and the Tanzania Serengeti game reserve”.

I already knew that I was the most fortunate man alive — a lucky lottery indeed — and our adventures were only just beginning. In 2005 we began our transition to the Adirondack Coast when we dove headfirst into rehabbing the Lapine House in Essex. And then, a year later, we decided to make Rosslyn our home, definitively finalizing our New York City exit.

Since then our adventures have been rhizomic, eschewing tidy linear trajectories for curly Qs and paisleys. Every day with this amazing woman has been another lottery won.

Here’s hoping my luck never runs out!