The best time of your life other than ER

This one was inspired by Nords. I'm giving the devil his due

What was the best period of your life and why? If you are already ERed, I assumed most would say that is the
best time, but feel free to disagree if you wish.
I'll start. I think the best time for me was when my kids were small. We all enjoyed good health and even tho
my workaholism was in full flower, I didn't realize it
or worry about it. I mostly enjoyed my work, but of course it was much later when I realized how much I missed having little kids around.

JG

[Zipper]

My exchange to Australia. Hands down.

We had a mansion 100 metres from Bass Strait and we walked the beach every night.

Took three great holidays, one to the centre where I climbed Ayers Rock, and a second to the Barrier Reef.

Did the Wine Tour through the Barossa Valley east of Adelaide.

[unclemick]

Building the Heat Shield for the first Viking Mars Mission in 1973-4. The emotional high was great - but so was the stress.

[Nords]

Great inspiration, John, thanks. No pondering, no debate-- it was our wedding.

On Sunday I flew up to Washington, DC. On Monday I took the Navy's nuclear engineering exam-- five hours' written with three interviews. I got the word on Tuesday that I'd passed. (That meant there'd continue to be a career as well as a wedding.) I think I spent the rest of Tuesday sleeping off the last six months' studying.

Wednesday we got the paperwork and the rings.

Thursday & Friday the family & friends started pouring in... that part is pretty much a blur. I remember that the wedding dinner was nice.

Saturday was the wedding. Right after the reception we faxed our wedding certificate to my assignment officer so that he'd cut me orders to my new wife's next duty station. Oh, yeah, we also started our honeymoon.

Sunday we flew out-- my wife went back to her meteorology job in the Azores and I flew to Scotland with the submarine crew. And I'm still thanking my mother-in-law for all her work to pull the whole week together while we were all in different time zones.

Four months later we started another top-ten time in our life: three years in Monterey. And the honeymoon's not over...

Geez unclemick. I used to make parts for aerial
recon cameras, nuclear sub periscopes, Hellfire
missles, and all sorts of aircraft parts. Wasn't the high point
for me, but something else we
have in common. I was into military/aerospace
manufacturing for the
last 10 years I worked.

JG

[Helen]

My best times so far was buying a two month Greyhound Bus America Pass two weeks after graduating from High School and traveling around the US and Canada - what a kick !

I am hoping to ER in 8 years and plan to do something similar on a global scale.

-helen

[sgeeeee]

Quote:

My best times so far was buying a two month Greyhound Bus America Pass two weeks after graduating from High School and traveling around the US and Canada - what a kick ! I am hoping to ER in 8 years and plan to do something similar on a global scale. -helen

Be careful. I've heard those transatlantic bus trips are brutal.

[Marshac]

Quote:

Be careful. *I've heard those transatlantic bus trips are brutal. *

http://www.terrawind.com/index.html

[bunny]

John,
We lost a child 2 years ago so we have taken a new outlook on what is really important. We now live for each day as it comes and consider it the best time of our life.
Bunny

[Martha]

Quote:

The best time of my life is always ahead of me. The next best time of my life will be 1 month from today when we are in the Bahamas in a Beach House Bonefishing.

CT, I think you get the optimist of the year award. I am not sure who get's UncleMick's curmugeon of the year yet.

Quote:

Great inspiration, John, thanks. No pondering, no debate-- it was our wedding. . . Sunday we flew out-- my wife went back to her meteorology job in the Azores and I flew to Scotland with the submarine crew. And I'm still thanking my mother-in-law for all her work to pull the whole week together while we were all in different time zones.

Nords, your story is great. How did you ever even manage to meet your wife?

My best year, so far, was fifth grade. I was charmed. I Loved Jalmer Rakala who sat next to me in class and he loved me. I had a teacher who got me into special music and reading program. And that summer I finally learned how to swim.

[BigMoneyJim]

Best period of my ilfe? Tough one. I haven't had lots of highs and lows, just usually contentment and a deep rooted, sometimes hidden optimism about my life. I think the best period is probably now or in the near future as I have more and more freedom financially and mentally.

Come to think of it, summer vacations from school were probably the best periods for me. No wonder sabbaticals and ER sound attractive to me.

Hey BigMoneyJim..............yeah, vacations from school!
That was a happy time. I did not think about that.
Would have run a close second to my time with my
kids still at home.

JG

Hello bunny. Losing a child has to be one of the worst
disasters that can befall us. I have several friends who have been through it. We pretty much follow your
philosophy for living, for mainly the same reasons.

All the best,

JG

[Nords]

Quote:

Nords, your story is great. *How did you ever even manage to meet your wife?

College. After graduation it turned into a long-distance relationship during 3-4 years of early training & sea duty. Rendezvous in garden spots like northern Scotland, London, Spain, Charleston, and wherever else the military had a major air base...

Which reminds me, John, next topic should be the most EDUCATIONAL time of your life! I don't think any of those moments made it onto my top 100 "best" list...

[hocus]

My favorite time of my life was my first semester of law school. Everyone says that it is awful because you spend all of your time studying and don't have time for other stuff. I liked it that everyone in the class was equally scared to death about failing and so everyone pulled together and bonded over this shared experience. We shared meals, we shared questions about the material, etc. After the first semester, everyone went their own way and it was not the same.

[sgeeeee]

Quote:

http://www.terrawind.com/index.html

Thanks for the neet link Marshac. I would never have guessed such a thing exists. But I still think an Atlantic crossing might be brutal.

[MooreBonds]

My absolute best time of my life was also my most painful time of my short 28 year life so far...

In the summer of 2003, my engagement to a woman broke off quite near to our wedding (I needed her to meet with a psychologist to confirm my fears of whether certain behaviors I noticed in here were just stress from planning a wedding/honeymoon/new house together, or if she was truly as harsh/manipulative/cunning/deceitful as she suddenly was becoming...she refused, so things broke apart). She loved being the center of attention, so she went to the local media for a week-long publicity frenzy (eventually later appearing on Good Morning America, and even on Inside Edition: www.insideedition.com/bride.htm).

However, needless to say, despite going through the pain of it all (especially considering that her statements are either gross exaggerations or outright lies...such as the little fact that I was paying for the whole damn wedding), my happiest moment without a doubt was the observation that I had indeed made a perfect decision on not continuing my relationship/wedding - as her love affair with the media showed what she was truly like deep down inside.

2-week Honeymoon to Italy that she demanded: $6,500 (a more modest 2 week tour at $4,000 wasn't good enough for her)
2.41 Oval G VS2 diamond engagement ring: $17,000 ("50 years is a long time to be married, so it better be a big diamond, because I'm worth it")
new 2,700 square foot house with everything she demanded: $270,000 (mortgaged)

Getting out of a relationship that would have driven me to the nuthouse and into bankruptcy from an out-of-control freespending manipulative self-centered spouse (and possibly lead to an early mysterious death, given other early deaths that men have experienced in her extended family), and giving me volumes of educational lessons on relationships: PRICELESS

For the things in life without a pricetag, a little Divine Intervention always helps. For everything else, there's Peter's savings to plunder.

I'm hoping to find someone (a little more sane this time ) to help make so many other happy memories that will eventually replace my lessons from the school of hard knocks....so hopefully in a few years I'll be able to answer the question with much happier/upbeat scenarios.

[hocus]

She went to the local media for a week-long publicity frenzy (eventually later appearing on Good Morning America, and even on Inside Edition)

Wow. They say there are two sides to every story, but I am inclined to agree that you dodged a bullet on that one, Peter76.

[bow-tie]

Yikes, Peter....

I can only speak for myself, but her telling me the size the diamond, the size of the vacation, the size of the house, etc etc, would have sirens going off in my head questioning exactly what she was looking for in a marriage. Seems to me you bailed overboard in the nick of time.

* * *

I don't have anything that stands out in my mind as the greatest time in my life. I have lots of great memories of different events and experiences, but I'm hopeful there are many more great experiences to come.

I do have to agree with BMJ that vacations from school were awesome. Oh how I miss those days.

[Spanky]

The best time of my life was my childhood. I had no worries and responsibilities. All I had to do was to study, to play, and to receive acceptable grades from school. After school, I spent most of my time playing with other children, doing homework and house work (i.e, washing dishes, cleaning up the kitchen, etc), flying kites, swimming, and fishing. We lived by the bay, watching sun rises, sunsets, and stars at night.