Personal (Affect) #7 My Song

"Let's Rome Around"

How many girls get to say a love song was written just for her?  Not many.  It's not because I'm a beautiful inspiring muse.  It's because my husband finds the beauty in everything he encounters - including me.  Tad is a talented guy with a heart full of music.  Anyone spending the smallest amount of time with him becomes changed for the better.  

Tad wrote this song in honor of our seventh wedding anniversary.  The number 7 is an important number to us so we celebrated this milestone with a trip to Rome, Italy - where we were originally supposed to be married if it weren't for the 9/11 attacks.  

If you haven't figured it out yet, Tad likes to surprise me.  One morning in Rome,  I awoke to see an ipod with earbuds on the pillow next to me. I inserted the earbuds and played the song already selected on the playlist.  It was the song he wrote, recorded and performed just for me.  Shortly after I listened to the song, Tad presented me with a new wedding band and asked me to marry him again, this time in Rome.

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Personal (Affect) #6. Monkey playing the symbols

LOT # 665: Figure of a monkey in persian robes playing the symbols

SOLD for 30 franks to the Vicomte de Chagney!  "A collector's piece indeed.  Every detail exactly as she said.  Will you still play when all the rest of us are dead?"  Phantom of the Opera

The Broadway Musical, Phantom of the Opera is our favorite show for many reasons.  It was the first play Tad took me to see.  Since then we have traveled to many places to see it; Canada, Texas, Las Vegas and Nashville are the first to come to mind.

Tad makes every trip magical.  We were just dating when we flew to Canada to see it.  It was a formal event  because it was the last showing at the Pantages Theatre and Paul Stanley of KISS played the Phantom.  Tad surprised me with a beautiful red velvet dress and made me feel like Cinderella.  The next time we saw it was in San Antonio, Texas.  It was a complete surprise to me.  Tad sent daily hints  before we left, one of them was a single yellow rose.  When we arrived in San Antonio, Tad surprised me with tickets to see The Phantom of the Opera.  While eating dinner after the show, Tad proposed.  I carried yellow and red roses in our wedding to commemorate that evening.

Personal (Affect) #5. Vienna Souvenir

Souvenir from the coldest place on earth

My husband and I spent our 2004 Christmas vacation in Vienna, Austria.  Tad chose Vienna because he knew I would enjoy the Christmas Markets (Christkindlmarkt).  These Little wooden huts are set up in the center of the city to sell antiques, crafts, jewelry, hot milled wine, baked goods and more.   Even though it was the coldest we have ever been, we managed to visit each one.  I found this little clown at an antique market but couldn't negotiate the man down to the dollar I wanted to pay so we left.  It didn't take long for the regret to set in.  I shouldn't have left him behind, I really liked it.  It was too late, we were leaving the next morning and it was way too cold to back-track.

As we were preparing to leave the next morning, Tad handed me a "surprise".  It was the little clown I left behind at the antique market.  Tad knew I regretted my decision and snuck back to the market to get it while I slept.  It's more than a souvenir to me now, it's a reminder of Tad's kind and selfless nature.