A Valentine Surprise

It's Valentine's Day in the year 1994. A day for romantics and lovers to be together. However, my wife Debra and I had a problem.

She was working in Sacramento, California doing a photo shoot for a catalog copywriting job she had. It was supposed to be for two days and she would be home for Valentine's Day. But it ran overtime and she had to stay in Sacramento for Valentine's Day and the day after.

Debra had not told me where she was staying or working. I had no address or telephone number, and this was in the days before she had a cell phone. I don't know Sacramento at all. My only experience of it was I had driven through it on the freeway a few times on my way to Lake Tahoe. It's a large city with a population of about one million or so. I didn't even have a city map.

Despite all these apparent barriers and difficulties, I decided that I would be with Debra today. She is my Valentine and I want to be with her.

The decision was very clear: I'm going to be with Debra today.

I got into my little truck and simply drove the ninety miles to Sacramento. While driving I thought to myself, "This is silly, I don't even know where she is in Sacramento." I shoved this thought aside and simply intended to drive where she was.

"Sacramento, next 22 exits," read the sign. Which exit should I take? Quite clearly, I got "Take the third exit."

I took the third exit and made two rights and a left into a large parking lot. I didn't know where I was. It didn't matter, though. At that moment, Debra walked right in front of my car! She had just finished her photo shoot and had driven back to her hotel, ready for dinner. So I took her to a nice romantic restaurant.

At dinner, Debra asked, "How did you find me? I didn't give you the address or phone number or anything."

I replied, "It's Valentine's Day. I wanted to be with you so I drove to where you were."

Then I gave her a big grin. A clear intention can work wonders.