My Wife and a Side of Cheesecake

I was living in Oakland, CA at the time working for Ascential Software.

I recently had returned from a 2 week trip to Cairo, Egypt in June 2001- it was my first time out of the country (not including Canada and Mexico) and I had to get a passport.  While in Egypt, I was pretty adventurous in my eating – Thanks Abdul, a friend I met while hanging out in one of the coffee shops.  Needless to say, with my eating habits I got really sick, and lost 20 pounds – not a recommended diet, and with the sandpaper like toilet paper there, I was very happy for the bidet.

When I got back to the states, and was recovering, I was pretty hungry for the next couple of weeks.  Some friends invited me up to Portland, OR to hang out at the Country Faire with them, and work security.  It sounded like fun, so I went.

I had rushed to the Oakland airport early that morning, and my friend Kelly picked me up at the airport in Portland.  After a couple of hours, I was starving, and told Kelly I really needed to eat.  He knew just the place – so he and his girlfriend took me to the ‘Lotus’ to get lunch. We had a nice lunch outside, but after my lunch I was still hungry.  The manager came out, and my buddy Kelly knew her, so they talked a bit, and I think she noticed I was still a bit hungry – I was salivating over my buddy’s girlfriend’s food, and she took pity on me.

As we were leaving, the manager, came out and gave Kelly and his girlfriend a hug, looked at me, and told me she would be right back.  She came back out, and gave me a to go box, and gave me a really nice great full-body hug.

As we were leaving, I opened up the box, and it turned out to be 2 pieces of cheesecake.  Who is this woman that gave me cheesecake, and pressed her body against me before I left?

“Hey Kelly, what is up with Sharon?” I asked. (I remember asking what was up with Shannon, but Shannon tells, me I asked for Sharon – I just wanted to know who the ‘Pretty, full body hug, cheesecake women” was – I didn’t much care about her name)

“Shannon, she is pretty cool and single” Kelly answered.

After the Country Faire, Shannon asked Kelly about me.  He showed her some pictures from the fair – I was wearing a wrap type skirt (I swear it was in fashion at the fair) and a wife beater t-shirt.  Shannon was sad that I was gay – but surprise I’m not, I am just part hippie.

That is the start of it all.  Over 5 years later and we are still together.  Shannon told me later, that she knew we were going to get married the minute she saw me.  I told her that giving me cheesecake, and pressing her chest against me, while hugging me, left quite an impression – to this day it still does.