Episode 3: “Your life is like a pimple on an elephants ass"-A Love Story

Since I’m chronicling life here, thought I should tell the story of how the Willie and Kate show began…

After spending a year living in Manhattan, I decided the city life was not for me and made my way back to the simple life in OKC.  My sister was getting married and I was devastated when I missed anything that had to do with her wedding.  I admit, I missed my family.  It seems like so long ago considering I now spend AT LEAST every other day with 4 generations of Robinson women: Grandma Billie, Mama Jan, Sister Sarah and now Baby Ellison (it helps they all live on the same street).  Anyway, I digress.  After returning home to shack up with Bill and Jan, I longed for an interesting job that would be easy to leave if I decided to move back to Colorado.  Thanks to the Daily Oklahoman, I became a photographer at a local studio (an extremely coveted position that required a High School degree).  I had studied photography VERY briefly in college but apparently that was enough to take pictures of elementary school children.  I befriended another outgoing young girl named Patty at the studio.  She was fun, artsy, and we had a lot in common.  She turned out to be the daughter of the studio’s owner (this will matter later).  Patty and I spent a few months hanging out and one day over Coronas she suggested I go out with her friend Willie.   Sidebar: This was not the first time I had heard of Willie.  He was a photographer at the studio as well (his dental career hadn’t turned out quite as planned) and had a reputation for being sweet, funny and a little out of control.  Plus one of the other girls I worked with was stalking him (and by stalking I do mean checking his work schedule every day and trying to get sent to work with him – NUTZO).  One thing led to another and we went on a date, then two.  It’s funny looking back because I was immediately drawn to him.   I don’t exactly know what it was but after only two dates I knew something was different about the guy who had the same name as my dog (which is precisely what I told him upon meeting).  Now to the title of this blog.  During our third date our friend Patty called and asked us come meet her for a drink, she had something to ask.  Long story short, her dad was trying his luck at expanding the company to Switzerland to take pictures on the mountain and she wanted to know if we would like to come.  WHAT and WHAT?!??!  Yes, this kind of thing really does just happen sometimes.  Immediately, Willie agreed.  I immediately agreed, then disagreed, then agreed, then confessed “I have to talk to my dad.”   You see… It had been almost 7 years since I had lived in Oklahoma and my sweet, sweet father had just paid for my plane ticket home after I had declared my hatred for living so far away.  He was so looking forward to me living here and getting a “real” job and settling down.  So when at 6:00 the next morning, during his first cup of coffee, I revealed I had this opportunity and I was probably going to go he said, and I quote, “Your life is like a pimple on an elephants ass,” then promptly left the room.  As my mother and I looked at each other and laughed hysterically she reminded me that my father would better accept this kind of news at the cocktail hour after a few martinis.  Needless to say, after learning that we would travel to the “Aspen of Europe” dad wasn’t so upset and thought it would be a great adventure.  As the story goes, Willie and I went on the journey (the background pic on the blog is us in Switzerland) and so in a roundabout way my dad got his wish.  We jumped in with both feet and had the time of our lives!  We spent two months together working on the mountain and traveling around Europe.  Somewhere along the way we decided that this was the real deal and thus began the first season of the Willie and Kate Show.