I started dealing poker at the Las Vegas Hilton on November 24, 1986 and that is where I first met Cullen. We were both working the day shift. He seemed like a nice guy but we really didn’t get to know each other very well until December of 1988, when we started having long chats about everything.
This was bad timing since I had decided the previous month to move back to Los Angeles and give my acting career another chance. Since our relationship seemed to be moving in the right direction, I decided to put Los Angeles on hold and see where the relationship was going. At lightning speed, we decided to get married and did so on January 28th, 1989. We had a small private wedding at Spike and Betty Gallas’s house and headed to Hawaii for our honeymoon. Cullen was different than most of the other guys that I had previously dated and that is why I decided to marry him so quickly. I had always dated the guys that were “the life of the party” guys. I believed that if I married a nice guy with a strong Christian background, that it would be a good foundation for our marriage.
After Cullen and I returned from our honeymoon, we decided that since I had canceled my plans to move to Los Angeles, that if we could get jobs in LA, that moving there would be an option. We talked to some friends at the Bicycle Club who assured us that if we moved to Los Angeles, that we would have jobs dealing poker. In the meantime, since the Las Vegas Hilton prohibited husband and wife working together, I quit and decided to deal the World Series of Poker prior to moving west.
We arrived in Downey, CA on June 14, 1989 and rented a nice townhouse on Tweedy Lane. On June 30th we both started working at the “Bike” as poker dealers. In 1991, I started to experience some back pain and I quit work on December 31, 1991. Cullen continued dealing for awhile, but eventually quit. We were both playing poker and it was fortunate that he did really well, because I wasn’t. Tired of struggling, I suggested that we become real estate agents. Reluctantly, Cullen agreed and in 1993 we became Realtors for Century 21. We didn’t enjoy it very much and only pursued that career for one year. As for my acting career, after several long hours of sitting in traffic, I realized that I didn’t really want to pursue it badly enough to go through that every day and pretty much gave up trying.
In January of 1994, after surviving a major earthquake, I was convinced that it was time to move. We packed up and headed back to Las Vegas in December of that year.
Over the next five years, I held various short term jobs i.e., acting, modeling, poker dealer. Cullen spent most of his time playing poker while I concentrated on playing progressive video poker machines. It was profitable but not to the extent that it needed to be. The upside to playing the machines were the perks that went along with it. We were constantly invited to upscale parties where 
we had an opportunity to win cars as well as jewelry (I once won a diamond necklace) and various other gifts as well as cash. We were also comped hotel rooms and food. During this time we really got treated like high rollers and it was great. I lived in Las Vegas for more than twenty-five years and this was definitely my favorite time there.
Cullen and I always got along and he was a good husband, but in 1999 I was starting to feel like there was a void in my life. I’m fairly certain that this was more about my emotional needs than anything that he was doing. Not knowing how to fill the void, I decided that a separation might help me understand what was going on. Unfortunately, the separation didn’t fix anything but instead led to a divorce.
I’m sad that our relationship didn’t work out because I loved Cullen and he was my best friend for ten years. He is a kind and gentle man and I hope that he is in a happy place in his life.
