Lemons...

Before I left, I struggled aimlessly o fit back in with my family. I felt like an outcast and of course, that didn’t make me want to open up to them about my new found “Love” with Patrick at all. So I stayed to myself and became withdrawn. Patrick and I talked on the phone everyday when I decided late in July that this was not working for me and I wanted to move back to Ohio. Patrick and his mom came to Illinois to move me back to Ohio. My parents sat on the couch watching us move everything out of the house and when the last box was loaded, my dad looked at Patrick and said some really hurtful things to him about me while I stood there in disbelief. Although I had done the things he was mentioning in the past, I felt that I had grown and moved past that immaturity in my life. I was very hurt and felt betrayed. More words were passed and we left with heavy hearts, but somehow I knew that this was what I was supposed to do.
My relationship with my parents soured. Patrick and I lived with his mom for a while until we found an apartment of our own. We got engaged and married in June of 1997, still not talking to my parents. Our wedding came. My parents came, watched the ceremony and left. They never said anything to Patrick or me, but at least they came. It wasn’t until almost another year later that we finally started talking again.

Our marriage started out great. We played tennis together, Patrick played softball and I loved to go to the games and watch. He played in our local hockey team, we got a puppy dog, we took pinics in the park, we ate ice cream on the stoop outside the Dairy Queen and watched the cars go by. We would laugh everytime a car would scrape the street after going through the drive-through. Things were great; until we found ourself in a mound of debt.

We were both 21 and over $40,000 in unsecured debt. We began fighting over money, which always led to other fights. Patrick signbed up for credit cards in my name and cosigned others that I didn't know about. We ended up buying a car that neither of us could afford, and ended up working all the time, which proved to be a strain on our marriage.