Triple Gotcha Day: Gloman, Glogirly & Katie

Hi everyone, Katie here.

It's a special day here at the Townhouse. It's a TRIPLE Gotcha Day. 

Eleven years ago today, Glogirly gotcha'd Gloman and Gloman gotcha'd Glogirly when they pledged their forever love and married. That's a double-gotcha. 

Eight years ago today, Gloman adopted me for his girl. I was a surprise anniversary gift. Better than diamonds and chocolate if you ask me. That's makes it a triple-gotcha.

So in honor of my girl and her Gloman, I'm going to tell you their story. It's no secret the two are silly romantics. And the angels were looking out for the two of them one random September day sixteen years ago. So why am I not telling you about MY gotcha day? Well, I figure this story has got to be worth a few extra pounds of salmon in my dish. And salmon speaks.

It All Began With a Bed

Glogirly met Gloman by accident one September day sixteen years ago. She was moving and needed a bed. The house she was moving out of was teeny tiny and the only way her bed was coming with her was through the upstairs window, out onto the roof, and down onto the grass. She decided no bed was worth that.

Her friend, Nettie, knew of her plight and offered up an extra bed she was storing in her garage. Glogirly happily accepted. All she had to do was stop by Nettie's duplex on moving day and pick up the bed.

The Meet 
Nettie told her that her upstairs housemate would be home so she could get into the garage where the bed would be waiting for her. Glogirly arrived at the duplex with the two-men-and-a-truck she'd hired to help. She climbed the steps up to the door marked 3440 and rang the bell.

When the door opened, there stood Gloman. The sky was blue, the sun was shining, the birds were singing and Glogirly was looking deep into the friendliest brown eyes she'd ever seen. She said something clever like "I'm here for the bed." All she could think of was how cute and charming this Gloman person was. And his voice...oh, his voice made her heart melt and her knees weak. She had to pull herself together just to make it back to the garage.

As Gloman opened the garage door, she made small talk, attempting to be smart and funny about the bed and anything else she could think of. Deep down she was terribly sad though. You see, Glogirly knew that she would be moving yet again later that month. But this time she wasn't just moving across town. This time she'd be moving to Detroit, Michigan. And Detroit was a long, long way from Minneapolis. She'd accepted a job there and was planning on starting a new life in the motor city.

The Hug
Gloman sensed her mixed emotions that day, even though he didn't know anything about Glogirly. He didn't know her favorite color. He didn't know she liked movies or popcorn or strawberry rhubarb pie. And he sure didn't know she was going to move all the way to Michigan. Gloman thought Glogirly needed a hug so that's just what he did. Glogirly said goodbye and left with the two-men-and-a-truck and the bed. 

When she talked to Nettie the next day, she told her she was sad. The bed was perfectly fine, but she was sad to have met someone like Gloman right before she would have to leave town. 

Nettie said that was crazy...that she was bound to come back to Minneapolis on business and wouldn't it be nice to have a friend to go to dinner with? She told her to pick up the phone and call him.

The Note
Glogirly knew Nettie was right. But she was too shy to call him on the phone. So instead she wrote him a card. In the card she wrote about how much she loved meeting him. She explained that she was moving away. She also said how much she would like to have a friend to come back to. Someone to have dinner with or go to the movies with. She mailed the card that same day. Then she waited.

The Phone Call - According to Gloman
Now the next part of the story is from Gloman's perspective. You see, he received the card a couple of days later. After he opened it up and read it, he thought about it and decided he shouldn't appear overeager or desperate. So he waited to called her. He waited a good 5-10 minutes.

Glogirly's heart skipped a bunch of beats when she heard Gloman's voice on the other end of the phone. They met for dinner, and then another dinner and another. It wasn't long before Glogirly was head over heals in love. Then it came time for Glogirly to move. She said the hardest thing she ever did was leave him. When they said goodbye and Glogirly drove off to Detroit, she cried the whole way there. She cried for 11 hours straight. And I know she cried herself to sleep many nights after that.

Just as Nettie suspected, Glogirly got to come back for meetings and projects. In fact she came home almost once a month. Every time she did, she and Gloman would see each other and do fun things together. They went up to the North Shore of Lake Superior, they stood at the edge of the ocean at Big Sur, they stayed at cute and sometimes corny bed and breakfasts, they went to restaurants and movies and ate popcorn and laughed. They learned about each other's favorite things. And they learned what was important to each other.

Despite the distance, their love grew stronger and stronger.

Homeward Bound
Two years later, Glogirly's job brought her back to Minneapolis for good. Back to her home and back to where she'd left her heart. Gloman flew out to Detroit so he could drive with her home. After the movers left with their big truck, Glogirly & Gloman hopped in her Jeep and headed west. As they were leaving town, he looked over to her, held her hand and said, "happiness is Detroit in your rear view mirror."

Glogirly couldn't have been happier. Even though she would have run off and married Gloman on the spot, she knew they needed more time. They needed to get to know each other all over again now that they would finally be living in the same zip code. She knew how special Gloman was to her and how she needed to be more patient than ever before. She wanted to spend her life with him and wasn't going to do anything to mess that up.

So Glogirly and Gloman spent the next two and a half years doing what everyone who is in love should do. They ate pancakes on Sunday mornings, they went to the movies. They snuck away for long weekends at the lake, they went for bike rides along the river. They surprised each other with cards and notes and cute socks wrapped up with ribbons. They went to Target, the grocery store, the computer store. They played foosball at the sporting goods store. They watched TV reruns like Seinfeld and laughed at all the same lines. They celebrated birthdays, Christmas's and Thanksgivings. They helped each other and comforted each other when life was hard. 

They realized that although they didn't need to be with each other, they wanted to be with each other. 

Ding Dong, Love is Calling
It was just another Sunday morning. Glogirly was picking up Gloman for pancakes. She parked on the street in front of the duplex, climbed the steps up to the door marked 3440 and rang the bell. Just as she had done that one September day. This time Gloman was waiting for her. The door opened and he asked her to marry him in the very place they had first met.

Just a few months later they were married on the banks of the Mississippi River with all of their friends and family cheering them on. Their wedding was eleven years ago today. They had a big party at the townhouse we now all live in. It was a scorching 100 degrees. But the sky was blue, the sun was shining and the birds were singing. It was as perfect a day as the day they met.

Glogirly can't imagine life without her Gloman. He's her best friend, her companion in life (in addition to me of course) and he is her inspiration. She loves seeing and experiencing the world with him. Glogirly says she is a better person because of Gloman.

REWIND: The Meet 

According to Gloman

Gloman also likes to tell the story of how they met. It's pretty much the same, except when he tells it he adds one small detail.

You see, when he opened the duplex door on that September day sixteen years ago and saw Glogirly, he was the one that had a very hard time finding the right words. He claims to have stumbled over them, barely being able to pronounce his own name.

Later that same day, when Nettie came home and asked him how everything went with Debbie. "Did she get the bed okay? What did you think of her?" 

He simply replied, "Well...I'm going to marry her."

Happy Gotcha Day to Gloman & Glogirly.

Now let's bring on the treats. I've got a Gotcha Day of my own to celebrate!