We met

Just a month into our first year together, Burt made it his mission to give my apartment a makeover.

Once refurbished, it would be our apartment. I found a contractor whose credentials included solid quirkiness. Every few days, we were asked for more money to keep the project going. Burt was paying for the work even though we had barely committed to each other.

We had taken a trip to Newport, RI in the summer; gone to see Michael Feinstein at Kutscher’s; went on the first of many weekends in AC.

I moved into Burt’s rental on W43rd so that the place on the other side of town could get its facelift.

That dragged out over the fall, with promises of completion by Thanksgiving. Burt said he’d be happy to settle for the end of the year. That would be December 1991.

In November, on his birthday, Burt proposed and took me to shop for a ring. We were about to have a year + a half engagement.