After a few OKCupid messages, we agreed to meet for a drink on November 7th, 2013.
Alison
You tried to get out of it at the last minute by saying you needed to go to yoga.
I self-sabotaged a little. In my defense, you picked a cafe on Gay street and Christopher street...
Not on purpose! It was halfway between our workplaces. But also, what's wrong with Gay St?
Oh nothing, if you're going to a Pride parade. 🌈
The only pride parade we got, was that drunk man that asked us if we were married and shouted at us that he was a lesbian too.
It was a good omen.
We have different definitions of "good." The first date went well though, and led to more dates
I liked you because you reminded me of a tech-savvy, mini-Rachel Maddow.
I liked you because one day you said you were thinking of getting a fish and the next day you had a fish. You had follow through.
Little did you know that you'd end up feeding Joe Fin every time I traveled for the next three years.
RIP Joe Fin. It's a shame he couldn't be our wedding oFISHiant.
Alison.
The ceremony would have gone swimmingly!
Oh dear lord. Let's fast forward to a few months later, when we went on our first super exciting exotic vacation!
To Atlanta, to see your sister.
I knew you were a keeper when you didn't run away after we tried to make you do the chicken dance at the MARTA station.
I've tried to block that out. But it was great to meet Deb and Sam, and to stay in a magical AirBnB treehouse for a night.
That treehouse was amazing. A few months after that, we went on another super exciting exotic vacation!
To Michigan, to meet your parents.
Don't ever say I don't take you places. We had some local adventures too: Coney Island, Riis beach, Storm King, so many theaters and museums, apple picking, kayaking… we lead a life of action and adventure!
But being home is nice, too. One year in, you gave me the most heartwarming keychain with your apartment key on it.
And at the two year mark, we finally moved in together.
You wanted an affordable 1+ bedroom with laundry in the building, closets, a nice kitchen, and ample space. I was a realist and wanted literally any apartment in my neighborhood. We looked at maybe 300 places.
And I found us the perfect place with everything we were looking for!
In a totally different neighborhood, 30 minutes away.
But the laundry 😍 and the closets 😍 and... did I mention how much I love you?
It is a really nice apartment. And we have a great backyard, where we host BBQs for friends and coworkers.
Speaking of work, I traveled a lot for NYU, which was hard sometimes.
But we got to travel together too. We went on an amazing trip to Iceland, where you napped in the car and I drove us from waterfall to waterfall.
And Berlin, where I took us from currywurst stand to currywurst museum
Then in October you came to Miami and met a lot of my family.
And then you came to Mexico for the first time, and met a lot of MY family.
During the fall of 2017 I started planning how I would propose. We had already talked about the kind of future we wanted together, but I wanted to make this moment memorable, and you were dropping not so subtle hints.
I thought sending you links to the ring I wanted was pretty subtle.
Very. I put together a scavenger hunt at one of our favorite bookstores, the Strand.
It was a total surprise. I had been hanging out with a friend and I came home to this!
You arrived to the Strand and I handed you the second clue, leading you to a book with another clue hidden inside. Six books and the most nerve-wracking hour of my life later, you found your way to the final book with the proposal written inside.
You proposed with a ring pop; of course I said yes!
But also, this:
And we spent the next day making this announcement video:
A few months later, you finally visited me in Abu Dhabi and got a glimpse into my other life. It only took us four years. I was really excited for you to meet my students and take you around town to the Grand Mosque and the Louvre. Also we got to eat all the things and take a road trip to Oman, where we got to spend time on a private beach!
And that brings us to now, sitting in our matching onesie pajamas on the couch, writing this fake text message exchange for our wedding website
