My Ex is Getting Married!

Let me say first that it is not Matt who is getting married.  I'd be furious if that were the case considering he has no time for anything else in his life!

With that said, it is my ex-boyfriend Eric who is engaged and will be married in 10 days!  Here is the store of Prince Eric and Arielle, The Little Mermaid (that's what everyone called us):

My sophomore year of college in Boston I joined J-Date for the first time, not expecting anything let alone to begin a long distance relationship.  A guy from Michigan kept checking out my profile but stated in his that he is generally shy at first and likes it when the girl makes the first move.  I was 19 and he was 23 at the time.  I figured I'd say hello, not thinking anything would come of it but knowing it would be good practice for when somebody closer to me came along.  We began chatting and it turned out we had a lot in common, and not only our day-to-day interests but what we wanted for our futures and how we believe a family should be raised.  Upon coming home from Boston for the summer towards the middle of that April (I always wondered why summer for some college students began so early), Eric visited me in my home town of Great Neck, Long Island (it turned out that his sister-in-law is also from Great Neck and met Eric's brother in college at University of Michigan, so he'd been there before).  The always perfect gentleman, Eric stayed in a hotel and we spent the weekend both on Long Island and in the city.  The thing I remember most about that weekend was how nervous and excited I was while walking to the hotel for the first time to meet him in person.  My stomach was in knots.  As soon as we saw each other we embraced in a big hug, started easily into the harmonious flow of conversation we had on the phone.  He kissed me and sparks completely flew!!!  We were both sad for the weekend to come to an end.  The weather on his last day in New York was terrible.  He went to the airport and I went off with my mom to run some errands but I got aphone call that his flight had been cancelled.  He took a cab from the airport to my house and we went for sushi.  During dinner, he informed me that he'd call his dad to arrange a plane.  "A plane?" I asked in confusion.  "Oh yea we have a membership with NetJets."  My jaw dropped to the floor.  I wasn't quite sure what to think.  Such a down to earth guy and you'd never know he had the kind of money he was now pretty much admitting to having just simply by saying he has a membership with NetJets.  He got a plane and I quickly drove him to the airport after a sushi dinner and he left for Michigan.

(So all of you know, NetJets is like a private jet time share.  You purchase hours, or shares in a plane and you can pretty much fly anytime and anywhere with just hours notice.)

He came to NY a second time just before a trip I was taking to Germany.  Once again, we spent the weekend in the city and on Long Island, just spending as much time as we could together.  That weekend, his entire family flew out to New York to meet me.  They stayed on a private floor at The Ritz Carlton on Central Park South.  It was so overwhelming but I truely felt like part of the family.  The greatest part was, despite all of the luxurious indulgences they partake in as well as the clearly expensive way they dressed, they were the most down to earth people you'd meet.  At the time Eric's sister-in-law Jolie was pregnant (she gave birth to Austin Jayce a couple of months later).  We hugged before the hopped on the jet to head back to Michigan.

I went off to Germany and upon my return from Germany, I went to Michigan for the first time to visit Eric.  I was a little disappointed with the outcome.  We house / dog sat for brother Ryan and sister-in-law Jolie while they took a trip up to vacation spot Charlevoix (sp?).  Eric was more concerned with the dog then with the fact that I was visiting.  I was disappointed that we didn't spend quality time together.  We did do some fun things and I was excited to meet his entire family (grandparents, aunts, uncles cousins) on my last day in Michigan.  It was definitely an ok trip but again, I was slightly disappointed.  Even in my last hours there he was playing with the dog while we watched television instead of spending quality time with me.

We broke up just days after that trip.  The 6 months and only handful of times we had seen one another was like out of a story book.

Just a year later, he was back in my life saying how he never wanted to lose me again and how sorry he was.  "Breaking up with you was the biggest mistake of my life."  Those were some rpetty big words and I let him come to Boston for a visit over Memorial Day Weekend.  We had an amazing weekend together seeing the sights of Boston and just exploring.  When we spoke about getting back together, he was very vague in his reasoning why he didn't want to right away.  Only days after his departure from Boston, he called to inform me that his family business purchased a casino - yes, a casino - in Reno, Nevada and since he was the only one in the family with no family ties in Michigan (no wife or children) he was responsible for that area.  After a couple of days deliberation we mutually decided that a relationship from New York (or Boston) to Reno was an impossibility.  Based on flight schedules, school schedules and work schedules, it would never work.  By the time one of us got to the other, we'd simply have to depart again.

Despite the infrequency of seeing one another, even in our first time around, we cared for one another deeply and I swear if you embellish a little bit and put in more detail, set it in the Carolinas, you'd have a Nicholas Sparks novel!

We decided to stay in touch although it was more me e-mailing him every few months to check in rather than any initiation of conversation on his end.

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Fast forward to this week.  It had been a couple of years, and a few back and forth e-mails, since our last encounter.  I got home from work, checking me e-mails and found one saying, "Eric G***** has invited you as a friend on Facebook."  I was in shock.  I quickly signed into my Facebook account and added him.  From there I did some investigating (as all good Facebook users do).  I noticed that some of the comments that were made mentioned getting together with "you and Sharon" soon, or "I saw Sharon the other day on an airplane."  I looked through his friends for a Sharon and found her.  I then Googled the two of them and the first link that came up was a photo of the two of them through a Jewish Organization they are members of (he is a chairman of a yearly mission trip to Israel through this organization).  The caption to one of the photos was "Eric and fiance Sharon....."

I couldn't believe it!  I knew he was living with someone but he never told me he had gotten engaged.  I e-mailed him on Facebook and said I wasn't expecting to see a friend request from him but it was a PLEASANT surprise.  I asked him what was going on with his life and he told me he's getting married...on October 13!!!!!  I was like WOW!  I'm so happy for him and all I can say is that she is a VERY VERY lucky girl.  He is a great guy and I hope they have a lifetime of happiness together!

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I hope Eric and I stay in touch more than we have been over the last couple of years.  He's a good person with an enormous heart and although Sharon is the luckiest of everyone because she gets to spend the rest of her life with an amazing person, I can only be so lucky to become closer to him as a friend (although I doubt she'd be all too thrilled).

I ended my last e-mail to him with the offer to use my discount for the company I work for (as it is a luxury Italian brand, and he and his family wear luxury items, I thought it was a nice gesture) and wished him Mazel Tov!

I've attached a picture of the two of them that he sent to me!!!!!

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It's totally weird to have an ex getting married and I know that as I get older, and the fact that I like older guys, this will happen more and more frequently but it is still a shock!