I am temporaily "physically" out of comission at the moment. I have a bad hip that has had four surgeries to try to fix it, and now it needs to be replaced which will be happening next month. It's a long story that if you are interested in you can check it out on my hip blog: http://meandmyhipster-sj.blogspot.com/. But this isn't a story about a bad hip it's about happier things..like love!

My "Patch Blog" is about my adventures around Salem and the great people who make up this fabulous city of ours. Since I can't get out much at the moment,but I want to keep up with my blog, I had to look inward..and inward brought me into my home. My boyfriend and I live in Salem, we met in Salem, and fell in love in Salem, so this qualifies in my blogging book as a Salem story. Also "D" my BF was born and raised in Salem, and is also a musician/singer who plays out in Salem quite often, so he is quite farmiliar with the in and outs of this cool city, so he has pretty much been my official tour guide of Salem.

I met "D" about 8 years ago..give or take a little. My next door neighbor at the time was playing a gig with his band "Lee Harvey" at the Edgewater Cafe  in Salem (which is no longer there it is now the Adriatic Restaurant and Bar..a place I still need to try out). Being new neighbors I thought it would be fun to get to know my neighbor better as well as be entertained, so I went with some friends to the show. The opening act that night was a guy named Delvis. Delvis had his "Buddy Holly" glasses on, a "fancy" suit, and was singing a song about how he could get any girl he wants. My first thoughts were:
#1 Wow this guy definitely like to perform
#2 He may have a little bit of an ego
#3 but he does have a really nice voice.
My friends and I were entertained for sure. After Delvis's set Delvis came over to my table, I told him he had a nice voice and he asked me to dance.

I saw Delvis performed out and about over the years.  I then injured my hip and was out of commission for awhile and didn't see "D" for about a year. Randomly I got an email from him one day; "How's it going? I haven't seen you in a while. Del." That email led to a few more, then to coffee one night at Jaho in Salem, and here we are almost three years later living together with our dog Sky in our apartment in Salem.

I told Dennis recently that I thought Delvis was his real name for the first five years I knew him. When he gave me his phone number I put it in as Delvis. He laughed, but I know I am not the only one, because every time we go out people always come up and say "Hi Delvis."  Dennis was bestowed with the name Delvis by his friend Pete, because Dennis was born on Elvis's Birthday, and he was born to rock. :)

"D" (my nickname for him...it makes it easier and it covers all bases) is one of the kindest human beings you will ever meet, and I am not saying that because I love him, it just happens to be one of my most favorite qualities about him. He also is charming, funny, and a truly talented singer/songwriter/musician. I have always loved music, but I have come to understand music on a whole different level once D and I started dating. Our living room is a music haven, it holds six guitars, a bass guitar, amps, LARGE speakers, a keyboard, a speaker system for his iPod, a record player, a stereo system, and over a 1,000 records (if not more). Technically I should be a musician myself just by the "music fumes" from our living room ;)  Even though "D" is Dennis to me now, in my phone he will always be DELVIS!

I believe D and I have a really beautiful realtionship (ok I am biased, but it is true). We have mutual respect for each other, we each put an equal amount of love into our relationship, and we truly enjoy each other's company and the company of each other's friends and family. D has also been a true hero to me during my surgeries, (when you go through your hardest time in life and a person sticks around you know that there is real love there ).

D rocks so much he even put me in his first music video (that Gary Barmin a talented local filmmaker did of his song "She Walks In Beauty"). It was a true honor that he wanted me to be in it (I blogged about that experience here on the patch in "Making a Music Video In Salem"), but if you didn't get to see the video, and want to check it out, here is the link: http://vimeo.com/23670585

There is always that line that you hear, "you are never going to meet a guy in a bar", but I have to say I met D in a bar and my sister met her wonderful and loving husband in a NYC bar, so pretty much love truly can be found anywhere; even in a bar. If you are looking for love it can come at any moment; through an unexpected email, a night out in a Salem restaurant or bar, in a local supermarket or farmers' market, walking down the street; anywhere! Always keep your eyes and heart open, because you never know when that special person will enter your life. For all the people who are with a loved one, feel lucky you have found someone that you can love and love you back. Finding love isn't always easy, but when you do find it, it sure is worth all the heartbreak and hard times that may have led up to it, because as they say, love is a beautiful thing;and I might add also quite fun... in Salem!