Pinch me, I must be dreaming

Shortly after starting work at St. Peter Hospital, I received another unexpected gift. As a 32-year-old male it never entered my mind that a 20-year-old female would give me a second thought. After all, I'd had problems getting any female to give me even a first thought most of my life. So imagine my surprise when the 20-year-old who had been cutting my hair for over a year one day asked me out on a date! Was this one of those acid flashbacks I'd heard about, or was someone playing a joke on me? OK, I'll play along. If she is serious, I'm sure 5 minutes into the date she'll see the error of her ways, admit this was a horrible mistake, and suggest I start getting my hair cut elsewhere.
Well, Christina's still cutting my hair today. Two years after that first date, we were married. This December (2010) will be our 26^th anniversary. She doesn't like when I say this, but it's true: I don't know what she sees in me, but I hope she never stops seeing it.
A little more than a year before Christina and I were married, I got what–at the time–was my dream job. Pierce College needed an assistant coordinator and full-time instructor for its Alcohol–Drug and Social Services–Mental Health programs. I had applied for the position thinking my chances of getting it were about the same as having monkeys fly out my butt (thanks Mike Meyers). A couple weeks later, I was having breakfast with Dr. Clarke St. Dennis the Coordinator of the program. After breakfast, I asked him how soon I would know if I had the job. He said if I didn't have the job, we wouldn't have had breakfast.
Teaching has always been what I like, no, LOVE doing. Whenever I'm teaching, it's hard to remember that I'm "working" and someone is actually paying me to do it. Even as a counselor, I've always taken a cognitive–educational approach in working with clients. Now I get to do it for a living full-time. Plus, I'm about to marry one of the most beautiful (inside and outside) people I've ever met. In a life of peaks and valleys–I had arrived at Mount Everest.
For two years I lived a life that–not so many years earlier–was unimaginable. For the first time in my life, I had found a job I could see staying with until I retired and was married to someone I was ready to spend the rest of my life with. What could possibly go wrong?