Once Upon a Lifetime: How I Romanced the Woman of My Dreams

By Daniel J. Praz

One chance encounter can change lives forever! An up and coming rock star becomes obsessed with the potential girl of his dreams after an ever so brief encounter one night in a downtown music club. Completely obsessed with the womans vision, the smitten guitarist devises a unique formula to capture the love of this young woman, even though he knows nothing about hernot even her name! He writes and sends to her romantic elaborate poems that show his love of her, and signs his name Rumpelstiltskin, from the Brothers Grimm fairly tale, whose muse was youll never know my name.
Set against a backdrop of sex, drugs and rock and roll of the music scene of that time, and with a cast of characters who prove that truth is stranger than fiction, this completely true modern fairly tale is the story of real love and romance that will change both of their lives forever! From the time he first saw her, to the time he took and held her hand, to the time he kissed those hands, to the time he kissed her lips, to the time he first touched her body, to the time he could have died in her arms, to the time he knew she was his one true soul mate, he knew this was not the ordinary. This was not the typical. This was once in a lifetime, his once in a lifetime.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 25, 2011
• ISBN: 9781462889785

Daniel J. Praz

Daniel J. Praz is the CEO, founder, and creator of the Mr. Sandless® wood floor refinishing system, a top-ranked, award winning business that he started in 2004 with just one truck and grew to more than 250 locations in ten countries. He is an ace guitarist who has toured and performed more than three thousand live shows and written, produced, recorded, engineered, mixed, and mastered multiple albums. He wrote his first novel at the age of twenty and Corner Store, his second novel, at the age of twenty-six. He has also written eight other books, all nonfiction of various subjects, with six published.

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Copyright © 2011 by Daniel J. Praz.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2011911329

ISBN: Hardcover    978-1-4628-8977-8

ISBN: Softcover      978-1-4628-8976-1

ISBN: Ebook           978-1-4628-8978-5

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1   True Love?

Chapter 2   Beginnings

Chapter 3   The Gang’s All Here

Chapter 4   The Chance Encounter

Chapter 5   Infatuation

Chapter 6   Revelation

Chapter 7   Declaration

Chapter 8   The Key

Chapter 9   Changes

Chapter 10   Again and Again

Chapter 11   One

Chapter 12   The End, My Friend

To Janice with love forever

CHAPTER 1

True Love?

What is true love? Is it something you can seek, or is it something that finds you? Is it something that can affect anyone, or is it incredibly special, something wonderfully magical, even to the point of actual fireworks? Is it a choice to love, or something uncontrollable—that you have no real choice but to love? I have heard some people say they believe that love is a choice—that it is an option to love someone. I suppose this could be true if the love was directed at a friend, family member, or cherished pet. But I don’t agree with that, for true love, I believe, can afflict someone without them even knowing it, and it can be a completely unconscious occurrence. I believe there are different levels to love—that you can love different people with individual depths of your heart. But above all, I believe that true love can only occur when you have found your one and only true soul mate—the person who is made specifically to match you, the yin to your yang, the piece that completes you and makes you whole.

I don’t have to look far to know what true love isn’t. I can get my fill of that just by talking with my family and friends.

If a strange woman was to come along, sweep him off his feet, and take him away from me, I wouldn’t even give a damn, my good friend’s wife told me. I just couldn’t care less. Sure those two were married, but they were sure not in love. This was one of those times when the guy has never dated in his entire life, and the first girl that comes along, bang—they’re married! For the life of me, I couldn’t tell you why they were together!

She’s dorky, wears terrible clothes, doesn’t have a single friend in the world, and her boobs are sagging down to her knees, said my younger brother about his wife of three years, mother of his two children. But I love her dearly. Yeah right! That sure isn’t true love, and in fact, it sounds more like true distaste! Can you imagine saying that about anyone, let alone your spouse?

Man, you should have seen the girl who gave me a lap dance at the strip club last night, remarked a former good friend two weeks before his wedding to a woman he supposedly loved.

If you want a hooker at your bachelor party, his fiancée told him at dinner right before the wedding, it’s all right with me. Just make sure you come back to me safe. So wear a condom. And they were calling that love? Wow!

True love is something special, something magical, and yes, there can even be fireworks. But it’s more than this. It’s like a giant puzzle with only two unique pieces that, when placed together, complete the entire riddle. That is what creates the fireworks! Some people, like my examples above, think they found the right piece to their individual puzzle. They think that they can force the incorrect pieces together or break one of the ends off to make a perfect fit. But they are only fooling themselves. That is why there are so very many marriages that end in divorce!

If only he would . . . Every time I . . . If only she would . . . These are all statements made by those trying to make a fit even though they are just not the right match.

I believe that true love is something that cannot be sought after. It finds the lover mysteriously, like a cool breeze that appears at dusk after a warm summer day. I discovered this through a friend of mine who, after being divorced some nine years ago from his first wife, has been on a quest to find true love. He’s good-looking, successful, and quite charming and has no problem getting women to fall in love with him. The only thing is, he can’t find that special one to fall in love with—the one that completes him. He just can’t seem to find that unique missing piece to his puzzle. He has had so many women ask him to marry them that I refer to them as his harem!

What do you want me to do? he asked me the other day. Should I just sit around and wait for someone to find me?

YES! I yelled back at him. "True love will find you! It will be just a chance meeting or perhaps a brief encounter. There may not be fireworks. Hell, there may not even be sparks. But it will be enough to set the stage for the rest of your life. Love will find you!"

I know he didn’t understand what I was talking about, but I was right nonetheless. The correct two pieces of the puzzle are inexplicably, magnetically, and subconsciously attracted toward each other. It’s as if there is some mythical Cupid running around with a quiver full of sweetheart arrows, just waiting for the right time to shoot the hearts of his two victims of love.

Do you know what else? If you don’t wait for it, look for it and believe in it, it won’t find you for the simple fact that you will have already been with someone else and missed the opportunity altogether.

I saw a couple wed on television where the groom, a firefighter, had been seriously burned and disfigured at work. Yet his bride was still there by his side to marry him.

I wouldn’t have married my husband if he was disfigured like that, replied a client I had after she saw the same program. She was attracted by the physical appearance of her husband. But true love transcends the physical. It’s where both partners could be blind, and it wouldn’t make a difference.

I miss him so much when we’re not together, a friend once told me about her new boyfriend. They were at the threshold of love and at its earliest stage—the infatuation—where every thought is consumed by the other person.

Sometimes we can’t stand to be in the same room, a friend told me. But the sex is like we’re swinging from the chandelier! Passion and lust are the second step toward true love but is only a step in coupling the pieces. I believe a relationship based solely on sex is a hollow one, and I’ve yet to see one last.

We’re just two completely different people, said my sister-in-law about her soon-to-be ex-husband. They missed the final stage of true love, the commitment, and it cost them everything.

How is it that I know so much about true love? Because a little more than twenty years ago, true love found me. I wasn’t looking for it, I didn’t expect it, and I can’t even say that I really even wanted it. But it found me anyway, and it all started with that first chance meeting.

Right now, if I were given a choice in life between a successful career and a successful relationship, I would choose the relationship without hesitation. But back then, years ago, this was not the case. In fact, it was just the opposite for the entire first two-thirds of my life. It’s funny to look back and see how maturity and wisdom changed me to become who I am today. This work is a story of that change, a true story of growing from selfish love to a selfless partnership, a true story of how I met, fell in love with, romanced, and married the woman of my dreams. True love such as ours is a once-in-a-lifetime event, a special romance unlike anything I could ever imagine would happen to me. And it was so magical!

CHAPTER 2

Beginnings

In my travels, I have met people with many things that filled their lives. Some I’ve known have only a handful of things that keep them busy. But ever since I was seven years old, I had only one thing that occupied my thoughts and time. It was my one true passion—a career in music. Playing and performing music was my one true love. So how did I get from that to being infatuated, in lust, and in dire love with this mystery woman? It was a long road that started at that same tender age of seven. Sometimes it takes a lifetime to get to the end of the rainbow and find a special treasure waiting!

The beginning of this rainbow started when I began to play guitar, inspired by my father, who had always wanted to be able to play the instrument. I don’t know which of the two of us was more enthusiastic about taking lessons! A music store opened up in the shopping center where he worked, so he took my older brother and me in to sign up for group classes.

Right from the start, I had the ability to play those strings. Since I was so young, I had no concept of time signatures or rhythm, and I thought that I was supposed to play the songs as fast as I could without making any mistakes. During the group lessons, I was completing each song in a matter of seconds before anyone else had even gotten to the third measure! Immediately, the instructor saw that I had talent and had my father sign me up for private lessons. That was the beginning of my love of playing.

I performed throughout my early elementary school years—at talent shows, at showcases, in front of the class, anywhere I could get an audience. Another of my brothers was taking drum lessons, and within a few years, we were being instructed by a guru who had us doing combo/orchestra-type tunes together. Even though we were quite good, both he and I desired something more our own style and our generation.

I’ll never forget the turning point to our love of music. My parents had a console stereo that we used to listen to records on. Since they didn’t like us to blare the music, we used to wear headphones so that we could turn it up as loud as we wanted. One afternoon, my brother came home from the record store with a brand-new release, placed the shiny disc on the turntable (this is called a record for all of you who only think there are CDs!), and told me that I had to listen to this sound. As he placed the phones over my ears, it was as if a door opened in my mind and a brilliant light flashed onto it. At fourteen years of age, I knew instantaneously what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, and that was to play music—that music, the hard rock that was filling up my senses and reaching right into my very soul. I wanted to be a rock star, and that was that.

Of course, I had heard the stories about the slim chances of making it big in music. I wasn’t stupid, and so I did consider this in my decision to take on the quest. But I also had unending confidence in myself that I could do anything that I set my heart to. I also knew that I had what it took to be something great—that I had the talent to make it to the top. OK, I had a big ego too, but it wasn’t really my fault. If I had a dollar for every time someone told me how well I played, I’d be richer than Bill Gates!

I performed professionally during my high school years all the while maintaining grades that put me at the top of my class. My mother used to say that she could never understand how I got such good grades when I never opened a book. I didn’t either. I just figured out a way to beat the system at school, and from there, it was a breeze. I could have been in the National Honor Society with my class ranking, but I didn’t have a single extracurricular activity to my credit. This was because of my playing. I used to practice three hours each afternoon when school was finished, rehearse with a band several nights a week, and perform on the weekends when we had a gig.

I even got to play at my own senior prom! When I was asked by the moderator of the dance if I needed a ticket for my date to that prom, I joked with him that my guitar was my date. But that wasn’t really a joke. Through elementary school and all the way through high school, I didn’t have a single date—not one. It wasn’t as if I couldn’t have. I just wasn’t interested. I was completely focused on becoming the best guitarist I could be so that I would have every opportunity to succeed. That was what I wanted more than anything.

I’ll never forget the time we played at this nightclub during my senior year. I was the only underage member of the band. The rest of the players were either college graduates or in their final year. There was this woman, around twenty-eight years old, who kept hanging around me, clinging onto me, laughing, and acting in a way that, for the life of me, I just couldn’t figure out.

What does this girl want? I asked my brother backstage. She keeps hanging all over me.

You knucklehead! he replied. "She’s flirting with you. She wants you!" I was completely shocked and embarrassed. First, I was so naive that I didn’t know she was flirting with me. And I was embarrassed, not because I didn’t know this, but because I really felt I didn’t ask for it in any way. I was embarrassed for her because I wasn’t interested in the least. I wanted to get home, change the strings on my guitar, and practice playing behind my neck. I didn’t have time for—gulp—sex! Man, I was a nerd!

My brother saw my angst and nodded to me that he would fix it. He was four years older than me and quite a bit worldlier.

My brother’s a really hot guitarist, isn’t he? he asked her. She immediately began to gush all about me as I listened behind a partition.

Yeah, he’s really something for being a seventeen-year-old high school kid, he announced.

HIGH SCHOOL? she screamed as she turned deep red. "I thought he went to college with you!" With that, she quickly disappeared into the night as I breathed a sigh of relief. I hoped that I wouldn’t have to go through anything like that again!

As soon as I graduated, I moved out of my parents’ home. During that summer, I performed at many different locations, traveled around, partied a bit, and planned out the rest of my life. By that time, I had written at least twenty solid rock songs and was quickly getting a reputation for being a hot guitarist. But I had a huge decision to make. Either I went all out and pursued my music career or I put