ABOUT PHIL

For those of you who don’t know much about me:

I was born in Brooklyn, NY and moved to New Jersey at the age of 6. I have a brother Jason who is not only family but one of my best friends (if you don’t already know him you’ll meet him at the wedding).

I enjoy and encourage creativity. I love music - both listening to it and playing it (I play the harmonica and sing). I am a voracious reader (don’t ever take me close to a book store if you don’t want to spend a few hours roaming around). And I am happy to say (sorry to all of you Buffalo Bills fans) I am a die hard NY Giants fan.

I am familiar with upstate/central NY having gone to school at Ithaca College where I studied Communications. I am currently focused and dedicated to my passion for helping people find more flexible ways to work and for people to have more balance between their personal and professional lives. Check out my website at YouCanWorkFromAnywhere.com.

I also try to help independent musicians and unsigned bands fulfill their dreams of making a living from their music. You can check out that site at MusicIsland.com.

One of the things I am most excited about is that not only will Kim and I grow together as life partners but also as business partners. We both share the same passions and desire for work/life balance and the kind of flexible lifestyle we can create by working for ourselves.

Kim has helped me with all aspects of growing our businesses and I can’t wait to see what great things we are going to do in the future. The hardest part is deciding which of our ideas we are going to implement next!

ABOUT KIM

For those of you who don’t know much about me:

I was born in Syracuse NY and raised in a small suburb right outside of Syracuse (contrary to Phil’s belief I didn’t spend my early years tipping cows – well…maybe one or two). I was always very active in sports and outdoor activities.

I have one sister, Lynn, and one brother, Eric whom you will all meet at the wedding – I am the baby of the bunch. I attend Oswego State in NY where I studied Psychology and Business (on the five year plan). I rowed on their crew team and played lots of intramural soccer & softball. I also spent six month in Europe studying and traveling (hence the 5 year plan).

After college I moved to Charlottesville, VA where I worked and lived for five years. From Charlottesville I moved to the Boston area where Phil & I live today.

I am in the midst of finishing up my MBA from Suffolk University – two classes to go - Wahoo! I have always wanted to open a business of my own and I love the opportunity Phil and I have created to work for ourselves while helping other people.

Phil’s version of how we met:

I had moved to MA in 1994 and after several years (and several career moves) I started working as a technical consultant. My first client project at this new job was to help Loews Theatres upgrade the server in their Boston marketing office. Little did I know when I met Kim that day (she was my contact at Loews) that I was meeting my soul mate.

Needless to say upon meeting her that day I thought to myself "Wow . . . I like this job!" We seemed to get along really well and had a lot in common. There was only one problem . . . I always had a rule for myself, don’t get involved with people you work with.

In fact this rule almost caused me to make what would have been the biggest mistake of my life until my long time good friend Larry Bogad was kind enough to knock some sense into my head.

Larry was visiting me in Boston one week and came out to one of the Open Mic Night shows that my friend Gary and I used to host every Tuesday night. Kim came to that show with a friend too.

I told Larry about her and about my personal rule. After Larry spent several hours talking to Kim he said to me "Phil . . . can I talk to you for a minute". He took me to the side and literally slapped me in the head. He said "What is wrong with you man . . . forget your stupid rule . . . this woman is really cool. I think you are making a big mistake." How right he was!

I heeded my friends very wise council (that's what good friends are for after all) and decided not to let my rule stop me from exploring our relationship. It has only blossomed since. Thankfully Kim helped me realize some rules are made to be broken!

Now we work, live and play together here north of Boston and I can’t imagine my life without her. We have a truly special relationship because we are not only going to be husband and wife but we are best of friends and support each other in all we do.

We are constantly laughing and I am thankful for every day I get to spend with her.

Kim’s version of how we met:

Ooo is it my turn now . . .

It is funny how things happen in your life. So many questions get answered when you aren’t even paying attention. So here I was, new to Boston and working for a company called Loews thinking how the heck am I going to handle everything that was on my plate.

I was on a professional mission. At this point in my life I had decided that my career was the most important thing to me over anything else. I was head strong and determined to do my job well and was not going to lift my head to look at anything else other than my end result – career advancement!

So 5 months into this “mission” computer problem’s evolved and I didn’t know how to fix them. Being new to the area and not having developed the contacts necessary, I took to the yellow pages. I picked out three networking companies and met with all of them to request bids.

Shortly thereafter, I ended up choosing one particular company that I thought would help us quickly. But more importantly, I picked the person I could communicate with most effectively and I could understand especially considering my lack of technical knowledge.

Well, here comes the day he is supposed to rebuild our server and who comes to the door but this guy whom I had never met before named Phil! Oh no. Who is this I asked? Where was the other guy? I could communicate with the other guy and felt comfortable enough that he could handle what I considered a serious problem. Could this strange guy handle this? Did I just get sold on some bad networking deal that was going to cause me more problems and derail my mission? Oh dear!

As you can guess by the end of the first hour talking with Phil I knew something was right. I didn’t know exactly how much was right at the time, but more was right that I ever could have imagined. Everything went beautifully, except suddenly I had this great interest in computers! (What do you want…I had to figure out some way to start a conversation with him. What’s a girl to do?)

So I guess the moral of my story is never get so caught up in your mission that you miss the gifts that are sent your way, because if I hadn’t looked up and noticed what the tide had brought my way - I would have missed out on the true opportunity of my life – spending the rest of it with Phil.

How we got engaged:

(I’ll let Kim tell this story being that she was
the one caught by surprise)

We had been planning to take a vacation for two years - no joke! Our vacation time is normally spent with family which we love, but had wanted to take one just for ourselves. We had planned a couple in the past but things would come up and we wouldn't be able to go. Little did I know this was going to be "the weekend" (I definitely would have packed differently had I known!) Being that we had been preparing for this trip for a while I was none the wiser that “other plans” were in the works.

We went to North Conway NH and stayed in a condo with a Jacuzzi and fireplace! Friday was your normal “hey we are finally on vacation night.” Then Saturday came along and what a day that was. We went on an Austrian horse drawn sleigh ride (I highly recommend that)! We goofed around outside, played most of the day walking around and taking in the beautiful White Mountains.

Phil wanted to go to a nice place for dinner and he was on a quest. We physically checked out several places to find one that satisfied him, which is not normal Phil behavior. Now you must be thinking that I had a clue what was about to happen by then - but no!

We had a great dinner at a fabulous restaurant called Decades! Then we went back to the condo and started a fire. We were going to read The Hobbit (we like to read books out loud to each other). He was adamant about getting the fire 'full-on Mack daddy perfect'. I couldn't figure out why. "We are just going to read for goodness sake - the fire will mature as the evening wears on" I was thinking! Harrumph!

So the fire was finally up to his standards and I was sitting on the floor in front of it. He said he had this CD he wanted to play - "OK" I thought put it in and lets start reading – I’m gonna fall asleep for goodness sake! He put it in and one of our songs started playing - I was all excited "oh I can't believe it you found that song" I said. Then he got on his knees next to me and started telling me all the things he loves about me - it was very sweet, touching and moving. He then pulled a ring box out of his pocket, opened it and asked me to marry him! I started crying - I finally got a clue!!

I answered yes as soon as it was humanly possible. He was so thoughtful. He told me the ring was the ring that his father gave to his mother and he really wanted me to have it. It is hard to put into words how I feel about that - except to say that I couldn't have asked for anything more meaningful and perfect for me.

The CD he was playing was a compilation of music he had been collecting for the past couple years full of songs that reminded him of me. He was afraid he might get nervous and not say all the things he wanted to say before he asked me to marry him, so he made the CD of songs that could tell part of what he was feeling in case he forgot something.

Of course he had to have two copies of it in different formats just in case something went wrong (that's my egghead husband to be). The CD is marvelous. He made the cover just for the occasion. He rightly named it the "Marry Me Mix" and put pictures of us on the inside and on the cover along with some of the things he said to me that night on the inside. A magnificent reminder of the night!

I was so surprised. I thought for sure I would have figured it out. I thought he would have given off some sort of vibe or something - but no. He pulled it off!

Afterward I heard all the funny stories that surrounded the event. How the ring got to him up here from Florida, too funny. Plus other silly stuff he went through to try and keep it a secret for the several months he was planning this. It was a lot of fun to hear how he managed the whole thing, how long he was planning it and how his family and friends all knew!

We stayed in New Hampshire until Monday and had a wonderful rest of our vacation weekend.

Anyway, that's the story! We're getting hitched and can’t wait to have all of you there to share the day with us!