The Deal - a very good deal, indeed!

Melanie was in Illinois when I called from Berlin to ask her to marry me.  She had just returned from a trip to Texas for a job interview, and I thought I may have lost her to that job.

I asked the question, and she said yes immediately (her sister Alicia squeaked in the background), and then she said something like "maybe I shouldn't have said yes right away."  Moments after that, she started the negotiation process by indicating that she wanted to have kids (We had talked about kids while we were dating and my typical response was that I didn't want any--I just wanted to live a carefree life with "the one I love").  My counter offer was that we have one kid.  She said okay.  Knowing that I truly enjoyed life in Berlin and that I'd stay there as long as possible, she said that she wanted to have our child during our next assignment in the U.S.  I said okay (this is yet another story).

Realizing that this was my chance to make sure that I ended up with what was important to me, I said "...and I get to keep my GTO convertible, okay?"  She said okay.

Figuring that I should negotiate for my terms until she said no, I said I'd like to choose my assignments in the Air Force to suit my career, and that I'd go wherever she wanted when I retired.  Her reply was something like "okay, but you retire after 20 years in the Air Force."

Done, deal, and we were both happy.  This negotiation took less than 5 minutes--and it may have actually taken less than 2, but those kinds of moments aren't confined by time so I really couldn't tell for certain.

So, we have one son, Gregor, he was born in Texas (6 days early--part of the other story), I still have my 1969 GTO convertible (white, black top, 400 cubic inch displacement, 4-speed), I had some very nice assignments (Berlin, England, DC Metro area, Moscow, Monterey), I retired after 21 years, 4 months and 4 days in the Air Force, and we currently live in Melanie's home town, the equivalent of 4 city blocks away from her parents' house.

Pretty nice deal, eh?