I had just joined facebook to get details for an upcoming HS reunion.  I had already been single for 2 1/2 years and was raising my 4 year old daughter.  I was not prepared to meet anyone... especially not on a Social Media Site.  But on February of 2009 I got a friendly Facebook message from a Charles Maldonado that said something like "  You look so familiar???  Do I know you from somewhere?  Hmmm maybe you look like someone.... Jessica Simpson maybe??? 

We chatted on Facebook instant messenger until one day I decided to let him call me.

We spoke every night for several months until I finally agreed to let him take me out!

Our Perfect date was on May 15th 2009.  He arrived at my house to find a blindfold at the front door.  I also had a blindfold on when I opened the door.  I thought it would be a fun way to meet for the first time.... We had a glass of wine & then he took me to Frankie & Johnny's Steakhouse in Rye.  We then went to Oakland Beach for a Romantic view of the beach...  the date lasted the whole weekend.  It was perfect.... I was in Love

  A few weeks later I introduced him to Gianna and it was so very emotional for me.  Watching the two interact brought tears to my eyes... They instantly bonded and I knew from that moment on he would be in our lives forever!

One fateful day in 2009 while I was living in upstate NY, I was on this semi-new site at the time called Facebook. I remember how exciting it was that I was finding friends from as far back as elementary school! As I searched on my friend Jason Crescenzo's friends list, I saw a name that stood out to me right away. Little did I know that stumbling upon this name would change my life for the better and that it would truly, (at the risk of sounding cliche) be DESTINY! That name of course being Jessica Simpson! Just kidding, that name was Christa Tomasulo!

 As I gazed and gazed and gazed at her profile picture I felt an instant connection to her face and name. I remember thinking to myself "Do I know this woman, could it be we used to hang out back in the day?" So as intuitive and forward as I am sometimes (LOL) I decided to take a chance and send her a private message. I figured even if we didn't know each other, I'd like to. ;-)

So luckily for me, she responded to my message of "Do we know each other?". We wrote back and forth about places we have been and the people we hung out with. The conclusion was that even though we may had run in the same circles and had mutual friends, we did not know each other. So now I figure okay, nothing wrong with having a new friend right? She agreed! I had a huge smile on my face that day to say the least! :-)

So we chat on Facebook for weeks and then ultimately exchanged numbers and started to talk on the phone. We started to become closer and closer the more we spoke and our conversations lasted for hours! I remember thinking and feeling that this had a total potential to turn into something more. Even though I lived about 4 hours away at the time, I felt we should go out on a date. I asked her and she said "Of course I will stud!" (Or at least that's how I heard it in my head. LOL)

So I drive down to her house to pick her up for our first date on May 15th 2009 and she sent me a text as I pulled up to put on the blindfold she left on the front door. So of course I'm thinking "Okay, this is freaky" but in a good way. Like a good boy, I do what I'm told and put the blindfold on. She opens the door and she takes my hand and tell me no peeking. She tells me that she too has a blindfold on and that she thought it would be nice to just talk and not see each other for a few minutes so we can connect with different senses. We sit on her couch and we are still holding hands. She tells me I have very soft hands and I tell her how great she smells. Finally after a few minutes she counts to three and we remove our blindfolds and what do I see? The most beautiful, gorgeous, and incredible woman I have ever gazed my eyes upon! I remember thinking that she was even more beautiful in person and how impossible I felt that could be since her photos were amazing! I kiss her twice, on the cheek, in pure happiness and we head out to Frankie and Johnnies in Rye to begin our date!

We had a great waiter and the food was awesome. The company was even better! ;-) I told her that I wasn't even nervous and felt like I had known her for years. This made for a very natural conversation and fun dinner. At one point she went to the ladies room to wash her hands and I sent a text to my friend saying "The date is going amazingly!" Apparently it was so amazing that my head was in a cloud since I accidentally sent the text to Christa!! Made for a very embarrassing but cute moment. I still remember her stopping me outside the restaurant telling me how much she loved my accent and I still couldn't believe how insanely gorgeous she was!

After dinner we took a nice hand in hand walk through the quaint town and then later drove to Oakland Beach. Holding her while overlooking the water on a perfect starry night felt like a dream. We both kept sighing in awe of how we felt and that's when I had to kiss her. We shared our first kiss in the most natural and beautiful of settings and it couldn't have been more perfect!

We spent the next two days together and four days later I asked her if we could be exclusive to each other for there was no single other person out there I could possibly want! She said yes and the rest my friends is history and I look forward to spending the present and future as her husband!

PS: There is a huge bonus in this whole thing for me, I get to be a Stepfather to the most incredible little girl on this planet, Gianna. The moment I met her we shared a bond. It was as instant as it was with her Mother. So I am truly the luckiest man in the world because I get to have double the love from the two loves of my life, Christa and Gianna!