Get to Know Us: How we met (and re-met and re-met)

As promised last Wednesday, I'm going back to the start - the start of our love story. We really honestly didn't start our relationship thinking about color palettes or tablescapes for our wedding - that's just where this blog began or rather when I contracted Wedding Verbal Diarrhea.

To those that say the third times the charm, I whole-heartedly agree. But I get ahead of myself, let's rewind to the beginning.

We met for the first time at the combined birthday celebration of two our friends - Ames and Andy - hosted at Leslie's in August 2007. At the time I lived down in the South Bay and didn't get up to The City all that often. Looking back I can't figure out why I was adverse to living in The City - but I was.

Outside of a brief introduction, that's all that happened the first time we met. I knew two people before I showed up - Ames and Steve. I also didn't know the dinner was a potluck and felt a little ill at ease as I'd showed up without a dish. (I did come bearing bottles of red wine.) I was also a little overwhelmed - Ames was quickly running down who everyone was - I met Leslie, Andy, Massive Bri, Opal, Mella, Nina, Dan (cubes), Karen, Dennis, and many more for the first time that night - and issuing warnings about homemade infused vodka. Already suffering from information overload, the night took a surprising turn when we were invaded by zombie invasion.

At dinner cubes and I sat almost at the opposite ends of the table. I was very quiet and not too sure what to say or to do (I tend to get very tongue tied when I meet people for the first time who I just like off the bat.) I also turned into a pumpkin quite early that evening - leaving for the South Bay long before Icka, Josh, Moni, and Sekani among others arrived. This celebration marked the end of my aversion to The City and I began coming up for more events and potlucks. For one reason or another, cubes' and my paths wouldn't cross until almost a year later.

When we met for the second time, fire erupted! The time was July 2008 and Moni was performing at The Crucible's Fire Arts Festival. After Moni's performance, all of us grabbed drinks and wandered around looking at the art. (By the way... fire is loud and concussive!) cubes and I talked. Not just the hi how are you chitchat, but we talked about what we liked doing and more. I thought he was very interesting and put away my camera so that I wouldn't be sidetracked. One problem with a long day (I worked in Freedom, CA (south of Santa Cruz) at this point and had driven up after a full day) is that I get tired really easily and don't remember things like people's names. The event ended and a day later, I tried to get cubes's info from Ames by inquiring about hiring software developers for the start up I worked at. This was a major fail. Too many in our chosen family are software developers. And she didn't know who I was referring to.

2009 started with another shared birthday celebration. This time - February 2009 - the celebration was for Steve and me. Friends gathered for a Moroccan dinner complete with belly dancing. It was the best birthday celebration that I've ever had. I was so excited that friends came out to celebrate with us.

Steve and I Learn to Bellydance (Photo taken by Ames)

I had secretly hoped that cubes would be at the dinner and had chosen my outfit to amaze (fantastic top with ruffled bustle from Miss Velvet Cream and my first pair of leather pants - none of which cubes would remember me wearing). Ames and Steve had planned the seating so that cubes and I were seated next to each other ( I was super excited). Unfortunately this didn't last long, as we all got quickly shuffled and cubes ended up at the opposite end of the group once again! We finished up dinner and the party continued at Shine - more people joined the celebration here. The afterparty then headed back to Andy's place in The Mission and eventually wrapped up with The Superbowl at Ames and Steve's place. At some point during the festivities - actually at a couple of points - with Moni at Andy's and Ames at their place - I confided that I liked a boy from our family. Ames immediately set the record straight that he wasn't in a relationship and was indeed single. I squeed in delight upon this discovery and was so excited that klutz that I am, lost my balance. Luckily Ames is great at catching me.

At the time neither cubes nor I knew that our friends were setting out from that weekend to nurture our relationship - creating opportunities for the two of us to become more than casual friends and become a couple. They definitely had their work cut out for them as neither cubes nor I were very well versed on the art of dating.

So there you have it. The story of how we met (and re-met and re-met). We're sharing the complete story on our website. Here and in our programs, we'll have the short and sweet version.

How did you and your love meet? Did you hit it off immediately? Or were you like us and had to cross paths a couple of times before your friends intervened and took up the role of matchmaker?