A couple of the blogs I follow have been participating in this Show and Tell Tuesday link-up. Today's Yesterday's topic: how you met your mate! Which sounded like a super fun post to document in writing. So here we go!
The year was 2008.
(Craig remembers it because that's the year KU won the national championship...)
I was nearing the end of my first year of teaching and it had been about 10 months since I had moved to KC. In that time, I became pretty close to my co-worker, Allison, and spent many a weekend nights with her and her group of friends. It was around March-ish when she asked me if I wanted to join a Crawl for Cancer team with her, her friend Lindsay, and a bunch of Linsday's guy friends.
In case you're unaware, Crawl for Cancer is an organization that originated right here in Kansas City. Basically, it's a pub crawl you do with a group of friends (team members). Each team member pays something like $40, which goes towards a team t-shirt and all the beer you can drink (there's a limit, but it's enough) at a handful of scheduled bars. The remainder of the funds goes towards finding a cure for cancer.
An afternoon of drinking + new friends + a good cause in Westport? She didn't have to twist my arm! Happily, I agreed. Not having any inclination that is where I'd meet my future husband!
As the pub crawl neared, we realized that it was the same day as our high school's graduation. Since it was my first year and I had only a handful of seniors, I decided to skip graduation and continue with the original pub crawl plan. Allison, however, decided to bow out and attend graduation. Because I knew the other girl, Lindsay, pretty well, I had no reservations about doing the pub crawl without Allison. Though I could have easily backed out with the excuse of graduation, something told me I needed to continue on with the original plan.
May 17, 2008 turned out to be a perfectly gorgeous, warm, summer-like day. Near 80 degrees, bright blue skies, and sunny. The kind of spring day you long for after a long and dreadful winter. We met at Lindsay's apartment near Westport for some pre-drinking pizza. I knew two other girls in a room of about 12 people.
As I was scarfing down my pizza, Craig introduced himself. I barely remember the specifics, but his initial reaction of me was that I was 'stuck up'. Hahaha!!! I totally didn't mean to be, but I know I can come off that way. I'm just very shy around new people and have a hard time striking up good conversation until I feel comfortable around someone. He claims I gave one-word answers to his questions and didn't at all reciprocate in the conversation. Sounds about right, especially considering I was eating my lunch. Girl likes her food!
It should also be mentioned that Craig only knew a couple of other guys on our team, as well. A few days prior, a softball teammate of Craig's (and one of Lindsay's guy friends) mentioned that his Crawl for Cancer team had a few empty spots to fill. Since Craig is a pretty big fan of beer, he thought "Why not!"
Around 1:00 that afternoon, we headed to our first bar. The afternoon consisted of lots of beer, bars, and flippy cup competitions. As is always the case, the more beer I drank, the less shy I became. And despite many of our team members not knowing each other beforehand, I think it's safe to say we all felt pretty comfortable with each other after just a few hours.
Here is our team at Harpo's after a mean game of flippy cup. Did I mention the day was just plain gorgeous??
Here are the lone girls on our team. (And Craig, being Craig, in the background.)
This was a few hours in. It's mildly inappropriate, but much better than some other pictures I took that day...
And finally, Craig and my first photo together! Ahhhhhhhh.... :)
After drinking since around noon that day, I had my friend Erica come pick me up around 8pm. I would have loved to stay out, but my stomach (and my brain) knew better. Good things never come from drinking for more than eight hours in a day.
Since I crashed so early that night, I was up the very next morning at 7am. With a smile on my face, I couldn't quit thinking about all the fun I had the day before. I was so thankful I stuck to my original plan and went on that pub crawl. I knew I liked this Craig guy...and I got the impression that feelings were mutual...but quite honestly, I didn't know if I'd ever hear from him again. Especially since I didn't have his phone number and I went home at 8pm the night before (I'm sure he thought "LOSER!").
Lucky for us, our team started group emailing pictures and funny stories from the crawl. Since Craig and I both had Gmail (and Gmail has a chat feature), we started chatting. We exchanged phone numbers and the rest is history.
Actually, not really! He asked if I wanted to hang out sometime. I said yes, but my parents were in town for a week. He thought it was a cop out and my way of turning him down without actually turning him down. A few days later, on June 2, after my parents had gone, I texted him and asked if he was still up for hanging out. That night we went to Johnny's on K10. Again, I barely remember this, but he says after one beer, the waitress asked if I wanted another and I said no. Craig took that as a hint that I was uninterested and ready to go home. Clearly, I give out wrong signals!
And that is the story of how we met and started dating! Not exactly through a mutual friend, but through a chain of mutual friends. And not exactly at a bar, but sort of at a bar. And not exactly online, but Craig likes to tell people that. Because, really, if it weren't for our group emails and G-chat, we probably never would have spoken to each other again.
There haven't been many days since June 2, 2008 that we haven't been together. Oddly enough, we both lived in Lenexa, a mere few miles away from each other!! (And now it's weird that we're moving back to Lenexa!)
A month after we started dating, we spontaneously went to St. Louis for the 4th of July.
And then later that month, he met my parents in the Ozarks.
 |
| First trip to the Lake! |
(I had already met his in June, a few weeks after we started dating.)
 |
| In Wichita for the first time. Ummm....look how similar we are! |
It all seems crazy now, but I guess when you know, you just know! In fact, we were at my apartment swimming pool about three weeks into our relationship when I asked Craig if he thought we were going to get married! I remember it like it was yesterday! Pretty gutsy, I was, huh? But I just knew, and I also knew based on our connection that he knew as well. And I knew that asking that wouldn't freak him out in the least bit! He just laughed and said, "I don't know, do you?!"
 |
| Not a picture at my pool, but a photo from our first summer dating nonetheless! |
Ten months later we bought a house. (Well, he closed on it alone, but I was very much involved in picking it out. We didn't want to get ahead of ourselves or jinx anything by putting my name on the mortgage when we were still just dating.)
Four months later, we got engaged. I blogged all about that here.
And 11 months later, we tied the knot! Here we are out our wedding rehearsal.
And our wedding.
And a few more pre-blog/pre-marriage photos. Because it's always fun to look back!
 |
| First few weeks of dating | June 2008 |
 |
| Summer 2008 |
 |
| Jack Johnson concert | August 2008 |
 |
| Boulevard Brewery Tour | August 2008 |
 |
| First Iowa football game | August 2008 |
 |
| First trip to the pumpkin patch | October 2008 |
 |
| First Halloween | October 2008 |
 |
| The day we got Kinnick | December 2008 |
 |
| First NYE | December 2008 |
 |
| Random night out | March 2009 |
 |
| A friend and future groomsman's wedding | June 2009 |
 |
| Our second 4th of July | July 2009 |
 |
| Second trip to the Lake | July 2009 |
 |
| KU Football Game | October 2009 |
 |
| Halloween | October 2009 |
 |
| Trip to Colorado | November 2009 |
 |
| Not our first Christmas, but the first time we spent December 25 together | December 2009 |
 |
| NYE - My famous quote, "We're getting married this year!!!" | December 2009 |
And for the record, we organized a team and participated in Crawl for Cancer two times since that glorious day that we met! Although neither time quite lived up to the original, both were great times reminiscing of that special day back in 2008.
 |
| C4C 2010 |
 |
| C4C 2011 |
So there's my Show and Tell Tuesday.........on a Wednesday. :) Here are the rest of the topics. Maybe I'll participate, maybe I won't!
Linking up with Momfessionals
No comments:
Post a Comment