Welcome to Sarasota

09/2003

I was thinking about the possibility of my having someone someday…so I asked myself what he does for a living. I realized that my man is an architect. Yes, he’s definitely an architect.

A man’s line of work has always been important to me. What one does is almost who one is, which brings to mind one of my favorite passages, “As a man thinketh, so he is.”

With all these thoughts of architects and architecture running through my head, it didn’t surprise me to learn that the Florida Association of the American Institute of Architecture was holding their annual conference right here in sensational Sarasota…right here where I live and breathe and work and play!

I had no idea how to infiltrate the conference. Hanging out in the bar is definitely not my style; working at the concession stand didn’t seem right; and I severed my connections with the FBI years ago. Then I remembered…hey, I’m a columnist for a magazine! I write! I’m magic, I can make anything happen! Better yet, I can make stuff up.

So I decided since all the architects in the state of Florida had decided to meet in lovely Sarasota, the least single sarasota girl could do was welcome them. I mean it’s the very least I could do. So I did…with a beautifully designed ad that read simply, “Welcome.”

Oh, and there was my picture and a famous quote of mine, “the single most important thing in the universe every girl needs is…a good architect (who happens to be six two and single.)” I swear if I’ve said it once I’ve said it a thousand times.

Well, wouldn’t you know it, an architect (who happened to be single) called my creative director. The two of them hit it off. They got along famously. But I’m a smart cookie and as soon as my creative director got a boyfriend earlier this year, I made her a t-shirt that reads, “taken, off the market, history, don’t even think about it” and she happened to be wearing it the day she met the architect. That’s how I got my date with the hunky guy.

I’ve never been so sure that I know everything there is to know. I was right. It is true, the single most important thing in the universe every girl needs is…a good architect (who happens to be six two and single) especially if that girl has some vacant land.

I’m so genuinely interested in this man’s work that his sparkly eyes, trim physique, infectious grin, off-the-charts intellect and near professional sense of humor almost escaped my notice. Almost.

That conference was in July. It’s now middle August, and being with my architect means one of us has driven across Alligator Alley and, frankly, I can’t wait until he’s hired here in Sarasota.

So if anyone needs an architect…a very “taken, off the market, history, don’t even think about it” kind of architect…I know right where to find him. And he’s with me.