I have been married to Peter Joseph Petti for 19 years as of today.

We first met when I was working at a gym in Woodbury, NY.

Before you get ideas of me as a hard-body babe telling others how to get rock-solid abs, let me stop you. I sat behind a desk and gave out towels & locks to the gym members.

I’d see his white Jeep Grand Cherokee pull up, and I’d brace myself, trying to play it cool. This was difficult because I’m inherently uncool, but I tried.

I didn’t know at the time that his name was Peter Joseph, because his gym membership card just said “PJ Petti”. I liked it. Later I’d tell my friends, “If I marry this guy, I can tell my children, ‘Hey kids! Time for bed. Go put your daddy’s on!”

Yes folks, I’ve always been this hysterical. And yes, I did say that to our kids sometimes.

Anyway, PJ Petti would walk up the path to the front door with his hat pulled down low and a book tucked under his arm. He never talked to me, the most I’d get was, “Hi.”

Ahhh good – a chase. This made me like him even more.

After a few more interactions, we finally started talking and he asked me out.

Our first date was at “The Inn Between” in Syosset, NY. He brought me there for lunch after I got off work. I still remember having a delicious bacon cheeseburger and a beer.

I think he quickly discovered that the way to keep me happy was to feed me because the next day, I went to his house and he got us a pizza.

One day after work he took me to the beach – not to swim – we stayed in our clothes and he put out a blanket further back by the dunes. We talked and laid around and maybeee I can recall a little smooching. He was late for work but said he didn’t care. (Later he would tell me he got in a lot of trouble that day.) He put Let’s Stay Together by Al Green on the radio on the way back and I joked that he probably played it for all the ladies. Seven years later we chose it as our wedding song.

We went to see The Blair Witch Project one night and were both freaked out as we said good night in his dark car afterwards.

That summer, he brought me to romantic dinners, we’d go to IHOP for breakfast, I met his friends and family, and he met mine. My dad still recalls, “All of a sudden this guy walks in and fills out the entire door frame.”

We spent almost the whole summer together until he went back upstate to college. Then, because I’m too jealous to hear other girls in the background when he’d call, we broke up.

But Peter Joseph Petti is the reason I believe in fate and the power of prayer. As I laid in bed after a bad breakup about 2 years later, I vividly remember putting in an order to God. I prayed for a tall, dark, handsome, FUNNY guy. Less than a month later PJ Petti came back into my life.

The rest, as they say… is history.