I've been going back and forth over what I've been wanting to say since even before Saturday's nuptials. Despite my career involving sometimes writing scripts, putting words into other people's mouths, I often find it difficult to express myself in the moment. My mind is racing at a thousand miles an hour and my mouth just can't keep up, I get tongue tied, my rate of speech speeds up and slows down as I search for words to accurately convey what I'm feeling. So it's with that in mind that here I am removed from the day of, and finally just sitting down and writing out everything that's been on my mind. Everything I wanted to say to the newlyweds. And I hope it comes across with the intentions that I have in my mind and in my heart. Forgive me if this goes astray.
I've said it before that Carol literally walked into my life 10 years ago. I was the manager of an adult kickball team and had invited my new teammates to my place in Huntington Beach for some pregame drinking. If you know anything about adult kickball you know drinking is a significant aspect of the "game." I was at my place with a friend and we were already a couple of beers in, walking back and forth between the inside of my place and my patio overlooking the street. This little blue Honda pulls into the street, goes back and forth before she finds a spot to park in and she's walking up towards my unit. She knocked, the door was open, I said come on in and in walks this young woman in our team colored t-shirt and I had no idea at the time that she would eventually go on to become one of the best friends I've had in my life.
If you know Carol, you already know how big and kind her heart is. How she will go out of her way to... I can't even say she does good, but rather she is good. She is just a good person through and through, she doesn't do it for anyone, it's just literally how she is.
We bonded over a mutual love of pi and in the nine March 14th's we've been friends, we've only missed two Pi Days together. The pandemic and then again this year with her having moved to Ventura.
If you know Carol at all, then you know Marley. And if you know Marley you may know a little bit about the backstory of how he came into her life. Granted I wasn't fully aware of how their relationship began until about 4 or 5 years ago when she finally told me. We were coming back from a night out at a Home Alone/Christmas Story photo thing in Hollywood, we stopped for a bit to catch Danny playing at some bar in Whittier and Carol tells me she had gone to the animal shelter and seemingly looked for the saddest looking dog that she could find so she could take him home. And from her description he was just matted in fur, covered in fleas, just this mangy looking little dog that, by all accounts, nobody would adopt. That is nobody except Carol. And now looking at Marley you would never guess the kind of life he may have had if it hadn't been for Carol. That's just the kind of person she is that she went to a rescue shelter and literally, literally rescued Marley. To the point where you've seen just how spoiled and taken care of and loved this dog has been the entire time they've been together.
Carol is unbelievably thoughtful and always looking to do the little things which don't seem so little when she does them. Case in point, a few years ago at her beach birthday party, we were all setting up under the canopy on the sand and she happened to notice the scrap of paper just kicking along the footpath. Literally someone's trash that they just tossed away and was just laying there. She walked over to pick it up and then walked it the additional 15 ft to deposit it into a trash can. Again this is just a small example of the type of person she is. It would have cost her nothing to just ignore it It's another piece of trash, there's countless pieces of trash littering the beaches up and down the state and yet this one scrap, one used up napkin, she walked over and properly threw it away.
And it's in this type of attitude that she always looks for the best in people. Even when those people may not be thinking along the same lines towards her. Which brings me to what I know about her love life. And yes I've seen too many guys... I wouldn't want to say mistreated but they definitely didn't treat her the way she should have been treated and respected. A lot of these guys were by most accounts very self-involved. Very egocentric. I've often used the term metrosexual. That they would spend more time primping and preening themselves then she does. God one guy even had his own peach tree dish facial scrub and apricot scented body wash. There was the other guy who, man that guy just smoked like a chimney. He literally... I can't even describe how much that guy just bothered me so much from the time I met him. And when he left, I felt relief for her but at the same time felt very sad that she was hurt by it all, the entire experience.
So when Carol told me that she had been using dating apps, and I guess this might be a surprise if some people didn't know how they how Carol and Greg met but when he came along she was really excited. I don't think they had gone on their first date yet when she told me about him. But she also made a point to say that he wasn't her usual type. Which to me obviously meant he wasn't metrosexual hahaha. That he rode a motorcycle and that he had tattoos, again not what she would usually date. And over the course of the next few months she just kept gushing about how much fun she was having riding with him. I even jokingly called her a biker chick. And then he volunteered to dog sit Marley while she went off to Japan for an extended vacation long overdue. Over time seeing Carol and Greg on their adventures together, I could see, I could sense a difference in her attitude, in the way she held herself. And I've said this multiple times before Greg ever even popped the question. Haha, even just remembering her getting all excited that they were stopping by a jewelry store while on another date. I joked at the time, sounds like he likes it and he's gonna put a ring on it. Haha! I finally told her after I saw the ring, that she didn't just look happy but she looked content. Almost, almost complete, I would say. Looking back now I guess I could see she found her other half... I'm already starting to well up again just thinking about it and writing this all out. Seeing the two of them together just feels right. They feel like they belong together, like they've always been a couple. Oh yeah, Greg and Carol? Oh, they've been a thing for years, I can't seem to remember a time when they weren't together.
Wuv... T'woo wuv...
Cheers to many more happy memories of and for you both. And uh, well I didn't want to be the one to say it but, Uncle Louie wants to see some nieces and nephews soon!
Much love to you, Mr. and Mrs. Greg and Carol Bloom.
Salud.
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