What was the Smartest Thing you Ever Did when You were Twenty-four?

The smartest thing I ever did when I was 24 was that I met and married the love of my life, my husband of 23 years, Mark Reifkind.

August 5th 1987, my 24th birthday. At this time I worked in a trendy downtown salon as a Manicurist (Youtopia)...I worked late that night and then walked down to a local nightclub/bar called D.B. Coopers with a couple of my girlfriends to celebrate. That's when I first really noticed him....


A few months earlier I had started to workout at nearby Gold's Gym in downtown San Jose before work in the mornings. I used to see Mark and Scott Wilson (professional bodybuilder) training around the same time. Scott would always draw quite a bit of attention as he was Pro Mr America, and this was the 80's afterall....bodybuilding was all the rage. Mark was not only Scott's training partner but his coach....but I didn't know that at the time...nor did I care (OK, I was such a bitch...hey I was 24!). The story continues....

Sometime after 10:00pm, that Wednesday night, Mark got off of his evening hours working behind the desk at Gold's Gym a few blocks away. He decided to stop by to see a friend who worked at D.B.'s as a bouncer, and have a drink. That's when our hearts met....

I can't get into the whole story, but Mark and I danced until the bar closed down, and then we must have talked for over an hour sitting in my 1974 yellow Toyota Celica.

The next day was Thursday and we met for lunch at Togo's....after a long lunch talking, laughing, and flirting, I was seriously late getting back to work for an appt, but something crazy good was happening. I wasn't looking for it, in fact I was trying to resist it....

Friday afternoon Mark calls me to see what I'm doing that evening....I invite him over to my place. He leaves Monday morning....three days later!

Monday afternoon he tells me he'll miss seeing me that evening (afterall we just spent 3 days together), and I said these exact words, "What makes you think you're not coming over tonight?. And he replied in these exact words, "You mean I can come over?" I said yes....

Tuesday afternoon he presents me with a 1/2 carat diamond ring....we were engaged. Less than 1 week after meeting eachother!

I remember we used to tell eachother, "I love you", and the other would say, "No, I really love you!", and the other would say, "NO....I really love you!" This would happen over and over again as we both had no other words to describe the deepest love we had ever felt for another human being. I often used to say, "When I fell in love with Mark I realized I had never before really been in love. "

A little more than 3 months later Mark and I drove to Lake Tahoe CA, and got married in a small chapel named Chapel of the Bells. The only reason why we didn't get married sooner was because all of our friends and family told us we were crazy.....besides, we didn't have a babysitter until Thanksgiving weekend! (My oldest son Richard was 4 years old at the time).

Has it all been a bed of roses? Of course it has! As long as my sweetie is in my bed, life is Rosy! The rest is history....history still in the making because the best is yet to come.

Picture at top was taken at a reception party my mother had for us in January 1988.....and yes, Mark is wearing Z Cavaricci's! The second picture was taken this past September at my grandaughter Sophi's 1st birthday party. The last picture was taken of Mark and I about 10-11 years ago, I was not at my heaviest bodyweight, but I was close....and he was there for all of it. Am I the luckiest girl in the world? Or what?