I consider myself the most fortunate woman in the world to be married to George.  We met at the base bowling alley at Travis Air Force Base, on the base hospital's bowling league.  He was in the Air Force, and he was working in the hospital lab.  This was in his favor:  he was employed.  I had gone through a period of time where I tended to attract the chronically unemployed or the constantly broke.  While I know what it's like to not make very much money, I don't like being informed that a date is "Dutch treat" when we're standing at the cash register.  Anyway, he had just joined the team we were bowling that night, and he came in with two other members of the team.  I don't remember hearing any bells as we were introduced, but I do remember thinking, "He's awfully young to be bald," and "His eyes don't line up!"  He told me the first thing he noticed about me was that I was reading a sci-fi book he had already read. Of course, George's team thoroughly trounced us that night, and George was a large part of it, since his average is 181. 

The second time we met, I was sitting in the bowling alley's snack bar, reading the latest issue of Astronomy Magazine. Now, Astronomy Magazine is not for the casual stargazer; some of the articles are way over my head, and I've been an amateur astronomer since the late 60s.  George got his food and walked over to my table, and asked if he could join me, to which I said, "Sure."  He then asked me what I was reading, and I told him, "an article about the Einstein Cross.  It's an image of a galaxy with four  gravitationally-lensed images around it."  To my surprise, he actually understood what I was talking about.  I was to discover that he also had an interest in astronomy, although not as long-term or as in-depth as mine, plus an interest in physics and mathematics, two subjects I was clueless about.  He reads books on physics and calculus just to keep his hand in.  He also likes to do math puzzles, most of which might as well be in Martian for all the sense they make to me.  After watching the Nova special on the code breakers at Bletchley Park, who broke the Nazis' codes during World War II, I realized that George  was exactly the type of person they had looked for - someone with a strong mathematics background who enjoyed working puzzles.   

As I got to know him, I found out that George is highly intelligent and has a deadly sense of humor.  He also sings very good high tenor, and plays the piano.  I've been asked if this was the reason I married him, and I have to say no, that was merely icing on the cake.  I realize it does look a little suspicious since another member of my church and I were starting a worship band at that time, and we didn't have anyone playing keyboards, but I assure you it was only a coincidence.  Not that it turned out totally bad.

One morning I encountered George in the parking lot as we were going into the hospital where we both worked.  I said, "Running late, are we?"  His response:  "If I were an Indian, that would be my name." 

Then our church began working on the Christmas program, and it was suggested by someone who knew both of us that I invite George to the Christmas program.  Little did I know where it would lead.

(In case you're wondering what a gravitational lens is, here's the definition according to HubbleSite, a website about the Hubble space telescope:  "A gravitational lens is created when the gravity of a massive foreground object, such as a galaxy or black hole, bends the light coming from a far more distant galaxy directly behind it. This focuses the light to give multiple or distorted images of the background object as seen by the observer."  The Einstein Cross is a case where a massive galaxy bends the light from a bright but more distant galaxy, and splits the image into four parts, one on each side, one on top, and one underneath the massive galaxy's image.  And yes, I do actually read things like this for pleasure.  If you think I'm bad, George reads things like "Understanding Physics" by Isaac Asimov, for fun.  That book is about three inches thick, and full of equations.)

Next time, Part II:  "Let Angels Prostate Fall"