Well if you haven’t already heard, the wedding did not take place!  I am so relieved! But it’s not over yet.

My Bride’s name is Kimberly McCorkell, and my name is Craig Nelson. I am still in pursuit of her, and now I know I’m making progress!

Thanks again for all your support.. I will certainly keep you up to date on how it’s going!

Craig (Forever Groom)

The time is almost here. No wonder I’m a little restless. It also doesn’t help that Trevor’s a little too warm and is breathing slightly heavier than usual in his sleep. It’s even worse that he’s also whistling through his nose! Cute, but just a little un-nerving. :)

It was another long day for me, not in terms of work, but in terms of being able to pay attention! I have found myself wandering off in my thoughts as people are speaking to me. I went for pizza tonight with some friends and though it’s nice to get away from all of this for a few hours, actually getting away is not that easy. Perhaps I should take up Bull Fighting or something. There’s probably nothing else that says ‘Pay attention’ like a raging bull coming straight at you. :)

As you may have already noticed, I posted a video from the movie ‘Juno’. I really like that movie – odd as it is – and I like the lyrics to this song, too. Anyone got any other YouTube videos that they think would warrant a mention amidst this whole situation? Drop the link to it in the Guestbook if you like.

If it works for me, and it works for you, then I’m Still In: I’ll post the link.

– Craig

[ added by Forever Groom]:

Hey, this was supposed to have been posted October 21st!  Sorry about that..

—

Today was an interesting day for sure. I woke to my radio alarm clock which is always dialed in to Energy 101.5 FM and I was sure happy to learn that today’s article in the Herald had reached an audience! The station was receiving calls from listeners asking about this “Forever Groom” person.. I was off to a great day!

And a great day it was. I spent about an hour at Marlborough Mall in the afternoon with a friend and a small stack of the “Support Forever Groom” cards I had made up for the contest. The goal for the hour was to split up and hand out the cards to people in the mall and meet back at the food court when we were done.

To do this I needed a plan. My plan was to introduce myself to people and tell them a little bit about my story. I was to explain what the cards were all about and that I needed them to visit my site to find out more and could they please leave a comment or two in the Guestbook while they were there.

Just as I was about to start out I recieved a phone call from a friend.

“It’s done. All 750 flyers have been given out – all up and down Stephen Avenue.” she said.

I was a bit confused.

“What flyers?” I asked.  “Where did you get them?”  I didn’t know what she was talking about.

She told me that this morning she had made up 750 flyers in support of my cause. She then went downtown to Stephen Avenue with a friend of hers and they handed out every single flyer.

That was such a welcomed surprise! ..Having someone take the initiative like that on your behalf.. I didn’t know what to say.

“Thank you!” I said. “That’s awesome! Let me know what it’s cost you and I’ll pay you back.”

“No, that’s ok. Don’t worry about it.” She said.

We exchanged our good-bye’s and see-you-later’s and I proceeded to put my phone back in my jacket pocket.

I continued on down the busy mall with a comfortable smile and began searching for someone I felt I could connect with and tell my story to.  How well would I be received?  What kind of looks would I get? I started thinking how crazy it was that I was in a shopping mall with a handful of cards in search of support from people I had never even met. How was I going to do this?

To my surprise I found that people were quite receptive to me and my story. The initial approach was the toughest part. I could see that as they saw me coming toward them they started to wonder what I was going to ask for.

Their defenses rose slightly as I neared the end of my approach to them, but not enough to say they had no interest.

Each person was different. I tried different ways to start the conversations while I manifested the cards in front of me and jestured for them to take a look. They would glance at the card quickly at first, and then usually lean foward a little to get a better look.

I would continue with my story and explain that I’m hoping to woo the woman I love away from a pre-arranged marriage to a total stranger that’s scheduled to happen in only 9 days. It was always at this point where they would then consider me somewhat a friend and would become filled with questions – and opinions too.

One particular girl took quite a stance on the subject saying that she was 35 years old and was considering dumping her boyfriend of 2 years because he hadn’t yet proposed.

“And she kept you around for FIVE years?!”  She said, somewhat scolding me.

“Yeah, well we had our circumstances you know..” I stated, already knowing she would not approve of my answer.

She suddenly decided use my situaton as an example in her own battles.

“I’m going to give this card to my boyfriend!” she said, and proceeded to take the card from my hand.

“And as for you!  It’s too late my friend.  You’re all out of chances!” she said to me.

I accepted her answer as being fairly reasonable and took one last shot at my defense.

“Well, actually.. no.. there’s still time.  It’s not over yet.” I solemly uttered, trying to gather my strengths again and keep my spirits up.  She changed her tune a little after that.. and gave me a smile to somehow say that she hoped I would succeed in my endeavor.

I thanked her very much for her time and as I began to leave the store I told her I hoped she would still visit the website and post her thoughts.

“Yeah well maybe this time you won’t wait FIVE YEARS will you!” She said in a humorous tone.

I smiled back and thought “It’s nice to know who your friends are.”

– Forever Groom

Breakfast Television interviewed Forever Groom on their October 23, 2008 show.

Kimberly, here’s two more posters for you..

I will.. – I took this picture on a snomobiling trip in Golden a few winters ago.  You were busy with school that weekend and couldn’t go.

Frog leggs Jimmy – For those of you who don’t know.. Jimmy is really small and he doesn’t ask for much. He is very passive and a bit timid at times. I call him “Frog Leggs Jimmy” because his long legs aren’t noticable until he stretches them out on the couch and when he does, he looks like a big hairy frog! That and I think it makes him out to be a powerful mafia boss or something. We call this picture his Star Wars picture “These are not the droids you are looking for!”

Jimmy’s personality has since grown into someone with quite alot of confidence for a small dog. Now when the other dogs try and boss him around he takes a firm stand for himself. It’s really nice to see – funny too!

:)

I’d like to express a little bit about why Kimberly and I found ourselves pursuing other relationships. Obviously, I can’t speak directly for Kimberly here, but I can tell you how I’ve perceived things from my end.

First, I would like to say thanks for commenting here whether you agree or disagree with my intentions, goals, and/or reasoning for my actions. I hope to add a few details to the picture and help clarify what my situation really is.

Things between Kimberly and I are not as black and white as “we were together and now we’re not”. It’s not as simple as “we had a fight and then broke up over it”. It’s more like “Okay we’ve talked about it and although we don’t fault each other for it, at this point we realize we as a couple are not ready to further our commitment to each other”. You can read that as  “OK Kimberly is ready and I’m not”. The reasons why I wasn’t ready are not relevant to the point. It just was the way it was.

When you find your relationship at this point it’s very hard to determine what’s a deal breaker and what isn’t. It’s hard because you don’t really have anything solid to blame it on. Both of you haven’t done anything wrong specifically, but there’s still the question of “How long do I wait to see – and at what point do I decide – that this particular outcome is actually final?”

My relationship with Kimberly has always been honest to the bone. Yes we have been ‘broken up’ for many months now. But this does not imply that we haven’t been best friends all along the way. I have an excellent friendship with Kimberly. I have always been concerned with her happiness.

I’m not one of those obsessive “I need to know where you are at all times of the day” kind of guys. I don’t want to spend my life worrying about whether my partner is out drifting away from me or not.

What I do want a in a partner is that when we’re together it’s because she *chooses* to be with me.. and she chooses this because she’s happy to be around me. I want her to know she always has a choice.

..So at some point I found I wasn’t able to commit to a life of marriage. I certainly wasn’t going to propose to her to buy more time for myself. That would have not been fair to her, me, or the sanctity of marriage.

I also didn’t want to just abandon her and file everything under “oh well, so much for that”. I’m a man of my word, and she’s too precious for anything less. We both gave ours words that as our relationship to ‘singledom’ progressed, we would be there for each other – no matter what.

Where and when did I suddenly become ready? It’s not as easy as that either. It could have started as early on as the day we started talking about separating. Some parts of me were changing in ways I hadn’t thought of. I started to imagine what kind of relationship we would really end up with if either of us were to have significant others. These thoughts progressed as our relationship formed a new shape.

One day Kimberly heard about the 2 Strangers experiment. She found herself contemplating the possibility that this new avenue to meet a future husband might actually have some validity to it. She began researching it and was very thorough in finding out what it really was all about. She always kept me informed of her findings every step of the way.

Because I was still not ready for marriage I would talk to her along the way and give her encouragement if I thought she needed it. As time went on I started to see things in a different light but kept quiet on my thoughts about it because I was still a little unsure and I didn’t want to muddle her decisions based on any small whims I may have had.

So today, I’m here writing all of this stuff to you.. and to Kimberly. Writing because I’m a much better writer than I am a speaker.  I’m writing to her here because at any time of day or night, she can log on and read it anytime she wants to.. and I hope that she see’s the value in my words. I hope you do too.

– Craig (Marry me Kimberly!)

It’s like 3 AM and I’m just getting down to write what is now yesterdays blog.. Today was an exceptionally busy day but I’m glad I could fit it all in.

Today I searched for solutions to gain exposure for my story to the public. Funny thing, I learned that you can’t fully explain all of this to a total stranger in less than five minutes. Where do you start?  How do you give them what they are looking for.. What the hell *are* you doing standing in front of them in their shop? It makes it even harder when you realize that they have no clue what you’re talking about.

I was starting to think I should have paid more attention in school. Where do I start? Talking about this individually to people I’ve never met isn’t quite as easy as I had imagined.

Fade to black and white. I’m standing at a chalkboard in front of Trevor, my dog. I’ve got a wooden pointer in my hand and I’m tapping it rapidly on the board, telling him *so clearly* that E equals MC squared, and he’s nodding his head up and down in agreement.

Zap! I’m struck with the realization that *nobody* knows what the hell I’m talking about!

Determined, I continue to explain my situation, sometimes going as far back as “..So there’s this thing on the radio where 2 strangers get married..” I go on and try to give them all the relevant information while they try to absorb it all and I try to get to the point before I lose them in a cloud of questions and whosits and whatnots.

I do have to say, this social experiment may have already screened out additional information. What I’ve noticed in my travels and conversations (with people I’ve never met) is that either men and women perceive my situation differently, or that I’m just better with women!

All kidding aside, I do find the women are more likely to say things like “Oh, that’s adorable! You’re such a sweet guy” and then proceed to gladly help me in every way they can think of, while men are more likely to say “Uhhhhhhhh?… OK..??.. Soooo…What do you want from me?” while slowly reaching for the silent alarm.

All in all it’s been well worth the efforts and I’m so glad that I might not have to explain my story so much from the ground up anymore since Robin Summerfield and the Calgary Herald were generous enough to sit down and write it all up so nicely. In case you missed it, my debut in the headlining world is here: A would be groom comes to his senses.

– Forever Groom

Kimberly, I’ve been hearing this song alot these days and its been striking a big chord in my heart whenever I hear it.  I looked up the lyrics today and realized it’s been “singing my tune” the whole time!  I’m sure you’ve already heard it, but I want you to listen again keeping the lyrics in mind.  Here’s the official YouTube video of it.  Watch it and think of me.. and say Yes!

Love,

Forever Groom

The site has been updated and we’re ready to go with the message board. Needless to say today has been a busy day. I’m starting to get return phone calls from newspapers and advertisers wanting to help out. I can’t imagine how busy I’m going to be tomorrow morning when their offices open up and they start going going through their emails and voice mails.

I do have a billboard coming.. But I think I’ll have a little fun with this one.. I’m not going to publish the location or date that it goes up. I will say that it’s going to be up for 7 straight days and that it will be within the city limits. You will be able to see it from your car. When you spot it, Honk your horn and then politely wave to the driver in front of you :) When you get a chance, send me an email (forevergroom@iheartmondaybride.ca) telling me the location you saw it at. For the fellow nerds out there (guys and gals alike), clock it into your GPS and send me the Latittude and Longitude co-ordinates of its location. Don’t bother to get out of your car to walk up to it – any point within 250 meters will do.

Sounds like there’s a prize involved so far right? Well there could be. There should be! But you’ll have to come back and read tomorrow’s blog to find out.. Mean, aren’t I.. :)

See you tomorrow! *grin*

– Forever Groom

ps: We’ve also recently discovered Twitter.com.. Set yourself up on there and you can “follow” me using your cell phone..  Just add yourself as a follower of “Forever Groom”.  This is my Twitter page.  If you’ve never used twitter before, then you’re in the same boat as me.  The key point is that you get text messages on your phone whenever I post something new to this site.

I’m getting *lots* of positive feedback from family and friends and people are starting to take quite an interest in my mission. Very nice to see!

For starters there are a few things going on in Facebook. Join the cause: Forever Groom’s Last Attempt. It’s a good place to express your thoughts and opinions on what kind of outcome you’d like to see. I did notice there is some functionality there for placing donations – you can ignore that. I will only accept donations of goodwill and word of mouth – but thank you very much for those intentions!

There are also TWO Facebook groups to join, but since they both exist for the same purpose we’re going to merge them together. This is the one you should now join: Support Forever Groom

Also, people have started setting their Facebook status to “iheartmondaybride.ca”. So cool! I love it!

I’m also actively looking for corporate supporters as well. The idea is that they add a small banner to their existing promotional ads that say “We support Forever Groom – IHeartMondayBride.ca” and in exchange for their generous efforts, I will proudly display their company logo and a few words about them on this site. And hey, since I’m a web guy, I’ll even place a link to their site :)

Again, I’m not looking for cash donations, just a little help with the word of mouth. The more Kimberly sees and hears how much I really do love her, the better chance I’ve got!

And as promised, here’s a couple more of those posters I made the other day:

Bailey Lappin’ it up When it comes to being comfortable you don’t get better than this! ..Oh and by the way – that IS Monday Bride in the picture!

Kooky Kyro Awwww.. Kimberly loves this picture of little Kyro. Can ya blame her? lol

We’re still working hard to get this site finished so I’m going to get back to coding.. Have a great Saturday night.

– Craig (ForeverGroom@IHeartMondayBride.ca)

Wow. Where to start! Today I’m working on a billboard ad. I’m hoping to get it placed somewhere between Monday’s home and office so she’ll see it on her way to work everyday. I will post the location here in my blog when it’s up.

My day so far is pretty good aside from my thoughts on her marrying somebody else. I’m not going to focus on that though: I believe that in an accident situation, staring *away* from the oncoming object will actually help you avoid the accident altogether. So Happy Thoughts for me today!

I was working on some ads yesterday for the billboard.. I’m not a professional graphics artist so they probably wouldn’t make the cut in the real world, but I think they’re cute and hopefully Kimberly will get a kick out of them. Here’s the first 3 that I came up with:

Trevor’s Point of View. Trevor is my 10 year old dog who appears to suffer from an acute case of separation anxiety. He’s the most affectionate dog you’ll ever meet!

Kimberly’s Flower’s Point of View. I gave this flower to Monday and she took this picture of it.

Footprints In The Sand. Wouldn’t it be great to be out on the beach..

I’ll post a few more here tomorrow. Got to get back to work! Have a great day and thanks for visiting.

:)

– Craig (ForeverGroom@IHeartMondayBride.ca)