Tip for a Tuesday....

Tip: Never decline the opportunity to dine!

Thirty four years ago this past Sunday, I followed that tip and the result was extraordinary.  

My sister and two of her friends had rented the bottom half of a house on an island for a month.  My sister kindly invited me down for the weekend.  She and I were the first to arrive and take possession of the rental.  As we pulled up in front of the house, I noticed some guys on the top deck giving us the once over. After unpacking our bits and pieces, we got out some lounge chairs in the yard and continued to work on our tans.  A short while later, the young men descended the stairs from the deck and offered a proposal.  They asked if we would be interested in joining them for dinner. They would provide steaks if we would provide a salad.  Cost wise, the odds were definitely in our favor, so we said yes.  We informed them there would be two other women joining us and they said that would be great.

Hours later, we set off for the supermarket.  As we perused the produce aisle, I noticed my sister was tossing numerous items into the basket.  I quickly started removing them. "Whoa!  Let's not go overboard. These guys don't look too promising," I cautioned.  As fate would have it, I could not have been more wrong.

Long story short...I noticed at dinner that one of the men had an English accent.  Having spent three weeks in London that past January, I felt comfortable striking up a conversation with him.  We talked and talked, and have been talking ever since.

We all had dinner together again the next night, and over the course of the next several weeks, the Englishman and I ran into each other again and again.  Late August he proposed and five months later we married.

Over the years, the Englishman and I have often encouraged our daughters to accept not only dinner, but other invitations.  Because based on our experience, a simple invitation can change your life forever.