Our Little Geekling

There was a thread on Twitter today talking about meeting our significant others or spouses, and I didn’t remember if I’d shared how Jim and I met. Turns out I haven’t told the story in its entirety, but just snippets here and there. I think it’s interesting. The Twitter thread was primarily focused on how incredible it is to be with someone you truly LIKE, not just love, after so many years. Jim and I have been together for almost 10 years, married for almost 9, and I have loved him since almost the moment I met him.

When I moved to Denver after high school, I visited a church near my uncle’s house (where I lived for ~two years) that my church had partnered with on a city-to-city mission trip a few years before. I visited the church service on a day when the youth group was leading the service because the pastor was on a mission trip in France. I sat in the very back row (like good Baptists do), and observed. And the most notable thing I observed was a SUPER cute, dark-haired boy in the back row of the choir loft. After the service, while I kept my eye on that boy, I went to talk to the youth pastor, because I was pretty sure I knew his sister (turns out I did), and he invited me to the youth group on Wednesday (the college-aged kids, of which there were about 6, went to the music portion of the youth group, then did a breakout for Bible study… or to go to the adult Bible study. I don’t really remember exactly). I went, and I saw that boy again, playing the piano in the praise & worship band in the youth group. Of course, that was Jim.

I don’t remember exactly MEETING Jim, per se, but I know that one of his best friends (at the time) was dating one of the college-aged girls I met, and we wound up hanging out sometimes. I fell in love with him long before we started dating. We became really, really good friends. He was my best friend in Denver. We met sometime in August 2000. He was a junior in high school. He dated some other girls in the meantime. I had a long-distance relationship with my best (guy) friend from high school. I went on a few dates with other guys I met in Denver. He dated a girl pretty seriously for a while his senior year, and she HATED me, so he and I fell out a bit. (By then I was sure I was in love with him, I was just really pissed off that his girlfriend wouldn’t let him speak to me.) He broke up with What’s Her Face (I know her name, but that’s a better name for her!) in early 2002, and in April of that year we reconnected. We immediately were REALLY close, best friends again, and I was positive he liked me as much as I liked him. I had started talking (remember “talking”?) to another guy about that time, but my whole heart belonged to Jim. I went to Jim’s high school graduation in June of that year, and we got even closer. We were soon spending every night talking till dawn, either on the phone, on AIM (remember AIM?), or in person (revolving between his house, IHOP, Village Inn, and Denny’s). At some point near the end of June, we wound up holding hands one night. Then we started cuddling pretty regularly (SCANDALOUS!).

 
June 2002, at Jim’s high school graduation party.

At the beginning of July we decided it might be a good idea to decide if we were dating or not. We both went out-of-town to see family, and decided we would take the week away from each other to think about things, go out when we returned to Denver, and figure it out. So we did. And on July 6, 2002 we went to Olive Garden and it became our first OFFICIAL date. We decided we would start a courtship, and we had very specific rules concerning our physical contact, spending too much time together, and spending time alone. Nerds. But it worked for us.

Two weeks in he told me he wanted to marry me. November 2002 we went on a road-trip to see his dad in LA and he wanted to get married at a drive-thru in Vegas but I said no. March 23, 2003 he told me he loved me for the first time and asked me to be his wife (and we kissed for the first time). July 26, 2003 we got married.

 
July 26, 2003.

It was all very fast-moving once we got going.

And the rest is history!

November 2011.