In honor of Barbara Leonard, with love.

Barbara Leonard may show up from time to time leaving comments, here is her story...

The short story
Barbara Leonard is a fictional character, conjured up to get me to the intersection at Santa Monica Blvd. and 2nd Street in Santa Monica, the same place where Adam and I met for the first time, and where he proposed to me after much planning (most of which went awry, because of my not playing along so well...sorry dear.) She had her own e-mail address and was quite a pleasant woman. The comments she has been leaving of late have not been true to her original character, Adam...why is that?

The long story
First, read Barbara's first e-mail to me here, written June 24, 2003:

Hello Posy Press,

My name is Barbara Leonard and I visited your booth at the National Stationery Show in New York a few weeks ago. I have to admit from the get go that I don't own a retail outlet so I really shouldn't have been at the show (oops)! But my older sister Diane does. She and her husband have a card and stationary store in Raleigh called "A Shop of Note". I always go to the show with Diane because I've always enjoyed cards and stationery and I always enjoy 4 or 5 days in New York. Anyway, Diane and I both loved your designs. So delicate and yet whimsical, I really do think you, or your designers or whomever creates your cards, is very talented. When Diane was looking the other way I quickly jotted down your web site and e-mail address (she'd die if she knew I was contacting you. She thinks it's a violation of "professional ethics" since I don't own a store. But I tell her I'm not a professional, why would I care about their ethics, jk ). I wanted to get in touch with you to see if you were at all willing and able to take special orders. Plus, my family and I live in Santa Monica, CA. Just down the 10 freeway from your headquarters in Culver City, CA. What I would be interested in would be about 75 invitations to a surprise 50th anniversary party for my in-laws. I know my mother-in-law will absolutely love your cards as well. Do you accept special orders? From talking with my sister I realize many modestly sized card companies don't often dabble in special orders but I thought I would inquire anyway. Your cards would be perfect for such an occasion and I wouldn't need to send them out until early to mid October. Thank-you so much for your time. Sincerely and anxiously awaiting your reply (one way or the other),

Barbara Leonard

Doesn’t she sound like a lovely person? So complimentary. How could I refuse. I replied enthusiastically, as I love doing custom invites and this particular request seemed like a piece of cake.

Barbara and I e-mailed back-and-forth, figuring out the logistics…where we would meet to get the details, more about her timing, etc. With every correspondence, she became more and more friendly and chatty.

At the same time, I would come home form work and tell my boyfriend about the nicest women who was interested in getting custom invites. I would tell him how extremely friendly she was and how the whole thing would be easy-as-pie to accomplish. After all, she had told me in one of her e-mails that she takes daily morning walks with her 2 small kids to the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, caddy-corner to where I work.

Barbara e-mailed to tell me that that she would be leaving for a trip back east with her family…and was interested in meeting asap. In fact, she said…is it possible to meet at the Coffee Bean at 6:00 a.m. on the day she flies out?

I am a grouch in the morning, there’s no way I could wake up this early, much less to talk business! But, I can’t tell her that, she would just think I was lazy…and anyways, I felt secure with the timing to hold the meeting upon her return home. So, instead of relaying to her that I would rather sleep in than talk about her stinkin’ invites at 6 am, I tell her that I will be out of town. This, I thought, would make me sound really worldly and on-the-go.

Well, this stopped Barbara Leonard short. I think I received one more e-mail from her on the subject, agreeing to meet upon her return.

A few weeks later, my then boyfriend went out of town for a Friday night shoot. Early Saturday morning (around 6 am) I wake up to the phone ringing and it’s my boyfriend. Our phone conversation goes something like this…

"Hi Dear,
you’re gonna be so annoyed, but I got the guys some frappuccino’s from Coffee Bean before we left last night and I left my credit card there. They’re holding it for me at the counter, but the guy I talked to is off at 7 and I want to make sure to get it before he leaves….can you please go pick it up for me? You can take a shower before you go if you want."

"Dear, that was not smart. And why would I want to take a shower to go pick up your credit card? "

Of course I went to pick it up…parked across the street from the coffee bean, ran across and asked for the card.
no card here.
Shoot, he must have meant the Coffee Bean on the promenade directly in back of the building we work at.
I get back in the car, pull up to the building we work at and park out front.

Hmm, that’s weird, there’s a rose petal path on the ground which leads out the door of our building and down the sidewalk towards the Coffee Bean I was just at. Someone must have died or something.

I then run through the building and out the back door, through the alley to the next Coffee Bean. Ask them for the card, but nobody has a clue what I’m talking about.

The light bulb finally goes off. I realize that the rose petal path was for me, and that it led to the middle of the street, directly in front of the first Coffee Bean, where Adam and I first met.

I head back toward the first Coffee Bean and hear some of the homeless mensitting out front say
There she is, there’s the girl.

I turn the corner towards our office building and Adam comes running out, sweating and panting because I did not fall for the plan correctly. He takes my hand and leads me down the rose petal path, into the middle of the intersection, says the most amazing things, none of which I can remember because it all became a dreamy daze….then he gets down on one knee in the middle of the intersection and asks me to marry him.