This is dedicated to the one I love...

"You're the best friend that I ever had
I've been with you such a long time
You're my sunshine and I want you to know
That my feelings are true
I really love you"


Queen-"You're My Best Friend"


I am blessed beyond belief with many wonderful friends in my life. Brothers from another mother, sisters and godsisters, musician friends, and people I just plain enjoy being around and love their company. People whom I love, but have also fought with hard because I love my friends and always want what is best for them. Only one of them is my best friend, and only one of them is the woman I love more than anything in this universe.


She is my wife and the mother of my child, Andrea.

For loving someone like me and sticking around with me since we met on July 4th, 1999, she deserves everything, including a lifetime supply of headache pills for all of the headaches I have given her over the years. I am truly undeserving of a wife as amazing as she is.


When we met, I was irresponsible and not really caring about what the future held in store for me, because I thought I would be dead sooner than later. She helped to change all of that, taught me to be responsible with money and finances and to be more patient, that you cannot get everything right away. She has a quiet strength that just radiates from within her, that tells me with her by my side, everything will be just fine and that we can overcome anything.


She is generous to a fault, and is always willing to help out a friend in need. Like her beloved grandmother, she wants her home to be a place where all of our friends and family can come and feel welcome and be at ease. Our doors are always open to the ones we love.


She is a hard and tireless worker, more of one that I could ever hope to be. I wish I could distill her essence and inject it into my veins, because then nothing would stand in my way, just how my beloved wife lets nothing stand in her way. I even think she works too hard! If there is trash to be picked up or plates to be cleared, and I go and do it, she says "Leave that alone, I'll get to that" I say "No, sit down. You do way too much. Let me help." My only concern is that I wish she would ask for help a little more. Lillian and I would be happy to give it.

She is someone who is tough and not willing to be pushed around. You don't know how amazing that is to be married to a woman like that, one that takes no shit from anyone. I also find it to be a...*nervous chuckle* a quite bit sexy, if no one minds me saying! Do not cross her wrong or criticize her family, her husband, or her child in earshot of her. If you do, do so at your own risk. Comcast, anybody?


On the flipside, she is also the most beautiful woman I have ever known. Not just looks, but in mind and soul as well. Yes, she has beautiful hair and gorgeous eyes and a wonderful smile and can rock a leather jacket better than anyone, but also has a mind that is capable of taking the most difficult problem and finding a way to solve it. If she makes a decision about something important, I do not question it for the simple reason that I have never been steered wrong in trusting her. I don't think I ever will be.


Also, while we are a unit that is strong and unbreakable, even though we are married, I have the freedom to be me and she has the freedom to be herself. We are still individuals who have our own qualities that make us who we are and our own interests. She has things she likes, I have things I like. However, we do not demand that the other change to make us happy. We love each other just for being who we are.


Andrea is also the most amazing mother a child could ever ask for. The bond that she shares with our daughter Lillian is one that cannot be compared. I truly believe that Andrea is Lily's hero and everything she aspires to be (Hell, Andrea is my hero too!). She will drop anything and do anything to make sure Lily is comfortable, safe and happy. No mother and daughter enjoy each others company more than Andrea and Lily.

Under it all though, she is my best friend most of all. We can talk about anything and we can go anywhere. One of my favorite things to do with Andrea is to drive a road just to see where it leads. Who cares where it takes us, because we will end up somewhere and we will always find our way back home. My favorite adventures have always been the ones we have taken together. Sometimes there was anger or moments where we would resemble the Keystone Kops, but everything would always work out in the end. That is life, and there is no one I would rather have next to me in this life or the next. Whether it be on a mountain in Slate Run, a beach in New Jersey, a lonely country road in Pennsylvania, or on the couch watching old episodes of "The Price Is Right", there is no one in the world who I would rather be with.


To my wife, my love, my life, my best friend and the mother of our amazing daughter: I love you always and forever. May our paths never diverge. The only reason home is home is because you, Lily, and our dog Annie are there. I just wanted to write something to tell you how I feel and tell the world how I feel, because it is not worthy to kept inside. It deserves to be shouted from the loudest megaphone from the top of Mount Everest, to the lowest valley and deepest plain.

I love you, babe!