How Miller Times got its start

Miller Time started in Spring of 2006 as a blind date. We were set up by good friends, Sheila and Monica. The set up was a long time in coming, because Joe and I (Tina) barely missed meeting on many occaisions over the two years before our first phone call. That first call lasted two hours and was filled with easy, fun conversation. Two other long phone conversations preceeded our first face-to-face meeting at Starbucks. The first date was almost the only date because I thought Joe looked a bit like the Una-Bomber. He was in need of a haircut and had a shaggy beard. To top it all off, he was wearing a ratty baseball cap. I was really into phone-Joe but was definitely unsure of his hair in-person counterpart. I couldn't get past the great conversation that flowed so smoothly, so we planned a first "real" date. He planned dinner and then took me to a park where we fingerpainted and told stories from our childhoods. I was more convinced that this fun, romantic guy was worth all that crazy facial hair. Our second real date was dinner and a private movie theatre I had created at the school where I work. We watched "Harold and Maude" and "Return to Me" and got caught by some of my students, who threatened to tell everyone that their dear, single teacher had had -- oh my -- a DATE. One thing led to another and....Joe left town for the summer. We continued to talk on the phone while he was on the east coast doing ministry. By the end of the summer our phone conversations averaged seven hours (yes, you read that correctly). Joe flew me out to Philadelphia at the end of the summer to make the drive back with him. It turned in to a four day road trip where we stayed with mutual friends and saw sights along the way. By the end of the trip, I think we were both convinced that we would never take another road trip with out the other. We shopped for rings on my birthday and he proposed on September 21st in the same gym where the impromptu movie studio had given us our second date. We were married on December 30th in the newly renovated Gillioz Theatre, the first wedding in the history of the theatre. We're looking forward to celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary on December 30th of 2056, so mark your calendars now because it's gonna be Miller Time!