Show and Tell Tuesday - How I met My Mate (AKA Mr.)

Another Show and Tell Tuesday here with Andrea, this time we're talking about how we met our mates and how we got engaged. I did a whole series on how we met already, but I'll gladly recap it for you guys.

We met in a bar, end of story.

Haha, just kidding. My girlfriends from junior high and I finally got together to go out. We decided to go to West Hollywood to a place called Barney's Beanery. Our booths were next to each other. Mr. was out with his band, yep he was in a band (singer/song writer), and his group of friends and my group of friends started talking.

The end of the night rolls around and we decided to head back to one of the guys apartments to hang out. Totally sketchy right? But we figured there are 4 of us and one of my friends and one of his friends were really hitting it off. So off we went. Since they were in a band we convinced them to sing some songs for us. So they busted out the guitars and started singing...talk about winning a girl over. End of the night rolls around and one of the guys is driving us home, there isn't room for Mr. to fit in the car, we're not sure what to do...it's just a little awkward. Anyway, I just casually wave and say goodbye, and start walking towards the car, when my friend says, Sarah go hug your friend. I happy turn right around and practically skip towards him to give him a hug.

Yes we exchanged numbers, and yes it took him exactly 2 weeks to call me! He left a voicemail message:

"Hi this is Mr., umm....I think we met at a bar in Hollywood a couple of weeks ago. I've tried but I can't get you out of my mind, want to do lunch sometime this week? Call me back at...hope you hear from you."

Smooth right?

I should tell you that we were both dating people at the time? I probably should have mentioned that right? Anyway, I call him back and we go to California Pizza Kitchen the next day. We had great conversation and while walking we kept brushing hands, and I knew I had a boyfriend, so I kept stepping away, but we were just drawing to each other and our hands kept brushing. If you ask Mr. he says that it was all me, I think it was all him.

He emailed me that afternoon asking for another lunch date and I had to tell him that I had a boyfriend. I was surprised when he wrote back because I thought for sure I would never hear from him.  He said something along the lines I'm sorry to hear that. I enjoyed meeting you and getting to know you. It just means that someone saw how wonderful you are and got to you before I even had a chance. He's a lucky guy. I hope this isn't goodbye, I'd still like to get to know you, as a friend. Hope to hear from you soon.

Wow, I was not expecting that response. This was definitely someone I wanted to get to know better. My then boyfriend and I were having issues, I had been talking to my parents about it and they told me that while he was a great guy I needed to do what I felt in my heart. So I broke up with him. I knew that if I found someone else this interesting that there wasn't a future with this other guy. So I broke up with him, Mr. broke up with his girlfriend and well, the rest is history.

This is us a few months after we started dating. We went to see my cousin play football and then headed back to my parents house for dinner. I had literally just chopped my hair off the day before.

We didn't have a digital camera so the pictures were few and far between. Surprising considering how much I love pictures.

We knew probably 3 weeks after dating that we wanted to get married. Our dating anniversary is July 10th. We don't celebrate it any more, heck we can hardly remember when it is, and usually days past and we say, oh hey, our dating anniversary just past! Oops. We got engaged in Santa Barbara 11 months after we started dating, sometime in June 2004. Is it bad that I don't remember the specific date? Us at dinner. He took me to El Encanto, it was so cute, and the food was delicious!

 Of course I said yes and 9 months later we were married!

We're celebrating 10 years of marriage in April, we're going back to Santa Barbara to celebrate. Can't wait! First time away from both kids since Mini Fox was born, a much needed break and hopefully lots of shopping gets done :)

So how did you meet your spouse? I love hearing all the stories! 

We Met In A Bar - Conclusion

Part 1 here

Part 2 here

Part 3 here

Okay, so the conclusion is obvious, but I thought I would just let you know this is the last of it, cause I'm nice like that.

So I sit back at my desk and can't wait hardly a minute before I email him.*

*these have been paraphrased, I lost my email account that I wrote him from and his email doesn't go back 10 years apparently, just 9

My email to him:

Hi, this is me. Thank you for lunch.

Him to me:

So I guess I'm lucky.

Mine:

Yep I guess you are. Don't let it go to your head.

Him:

I'll try not to. I had a great time. Want to grab some lunch again sometime soon?

(Me - Darn it, I guess I can't lead him on any more, I have to tell him I have a boyfriend and that this can't go any further than friends. Guess I won't be hearing from him after I sent this email)

Mine:

That would be great, but I do have to be honest with you and tell you that I have a boyfriend. I totally understand if you don't want to talk to me again, but just wanted to be honest with you. I enjoyed getting to know you and hope that we can remain friends and still get to know each other.

What all guys want to hear right?

(Me - I assume I will not be hearing a response after I send this.)

(Mr. - Thinking a lot of 4 letter words that shouldn't be said out loud.)

His response - was much better worded than this, but along the lines of:

I'm sorry to hear that. I enjoyed meeting you and getting to know you. It just means that someone saw how wonderful you are and got to you before I even had a chance. He's a lucky guy. I hope this isn't goodbye, I'd still like to get to know you, as a friend. Hope to hear from you soon.

(Me - darn it, that was not the response that I was expecting. I had been wavering with my boyfriend at the time. We just weren't a good fit, we didn't agree on anything, religion, politics, how to raise kids. He was a great guy...on paper, but I just didn't see myself with him long term any more. I think at the time I thought I didn't deserve better, but that's for a different post, and was ultimately settling. Mr. made me feel more alive and I felt the connection with him immediately. Even if he and I didn't go anywhere, I knew that I had to end things with the other guy. There was just someone else out there for me.)

I honestly can't remember my response back. But we kept emailing on friendly terms. I did in fact break up with my boyfriend a couple of weeks later, and then waited another few weeks after that before I made actual plans to meet up with Mr. again.

On a side note: Mr. also had a girlfriend at the time, someone he has also been dating for a while. He broke up with her around the same time I broke up with the other guy.

And that my friends is how we met.

Us on our Honeymoon in Bora Bora - A surprise he kept until our wedding day. Yep, that's right, I had no idea where we were going on our honeymoon until our wedding day. All I knew was that I need a passport and that I MIGHT need some bathing suites.

Time frame: We met at the end of May and our first kiss was July 10th...in a bar (I only know this because I was in a wedding 2 days later, and took a few days off with my bestie and fellow bridesmaid to blow off steam before all the wedding festivities began).

We Met In a Bar - Part 3

Part 1 here.

Part 2 here.

I nervously called him back. Wondering what do I say, "Hey this is Sarah...", does he know who Sarah is? Is he going to say "Sarah who?" and then I shamelessly put my tail between my legs and crawl into a hole? But he called me...right?

But none of those things happened, he seemed genuinely happy to hear from me and maybe slightly relieved? We talked briefly and decided to go to lunch that day! Talk about fast, but it was probably the best scenario, I didn't have time to get nervous/over analyze what was happening. It was literally only 2 hours away and he was coming to pick me up.

Those two hours passed fairly quickly, you know doing the whole work thing. All of a sudden I get a phone call and it's him saying he's outside waiting for me.

Talk about butterflies! I have to mention that I literally had forgotten what he looked like! I mean it's been over two weeks and I had written him off, so my brain pushed the image of him out of my head. So I had no idea what I was walking into.

He was standing on the opposite side of a planter box, so I could just see the back of his head. He was leaning against the planter box, with his leg up, literally it was one of those model poses. I quickly walk around and say hi, and my heart nearly stopped, he was MUCH cuter then I remembered.

We ended up going to California Pizza Kitchen. I got my favorite Chinese Chicken Salad and he got some sort of pizza. We talked like we had been friends forever and never had a break in conversation. Everything he said made me think, I really want to get to know this guy, there is just something about him that I need to know more. When we were done eating, neither of us wanted to leave, but our lunch hour was almost up and we both had to get back to work. As we were walking back to the car we were like magnets to each other and our hands kept brushing against each other. Each time an electric current passed between us. We looked at each other and smile.  I had to keep saying...I have a boyfriend, I have a boyfriend, I have a boyfriend and every fiber of my being not to want to grab his hand and run. (side note: Mr. thinks that it was all me brushing his hand, and to this day, he maintains that story)

While he was dropping me off, he says here's my email address, email me, you know before all those social circles started popping up, we did this thing called emailing.

I smiles and said, "if you're lucky" and got out of the car.

This is us on a trip to Chicago to visit one of my college roommates. This is about10 months after we started dating.

Random Dive Bar

Navy Pier Ferris Wheel

We Met In A Bar - Part 2

Part 1 here.

We left off that we were headed to Mr.'s friend's apartment. Yea I know sketchy right? But don't tell me you didn't do this too. I sort of left this part out when telling my mom the story, oops. Sorry Mom if you're reading this! We get there and we're just hanging out, beers were passed around. You know just a bunch of girls and guys hanging out. Well the friend and the other boy disappeared in the back somewhere so it was just 3 girls and 2 guys left.

Since they were a band and they knew how to play and sing, we convinced them to give us a performance. No joke, they broke out the guitars and Mr. started singing...right there in front of us, and I might have swooned a little bit. I think they did 2 songs or so? What a way to win over a girl. So Mr. comes and sits by me, we're all talking and laughing when suddenly he grabs my hand, like this isn't a big deal, I do this all the time. I blushed, and felt that giddy feeling you get when you meet someone new and you're into them and they're digging you too. You know the feeling, right?

It was getting sort of late, so we decided that we're going to leave, one of the guys is going to drive us all back, but since there are 4 of us, and his car only fits 5, we had to leave Mr. behind :( So I'm about to get in the car, and my friend looks at Mr. and he looks all sad that he can't come with, so my friend says Sarah go hug your friend, so I bound over and give him the best hug ever. We left, got home safely and I thought I would never hear from him again...

Okay so I hate when people end in a cliff hanger like that and then wait weeks and weeks to keep going, so I'll continue.

The first few days I had hoped he would call, but soon after that I forgot about him and went about my life and trying to figure out what to do with this boyfriend that I had. Fast forward 2 weeks, yes 2 weeks and I get a voice mail message from an unknown number.

"Hi this is Mr., umm....I think we met at a bar in Hollywood a couple of weeks ago. I've tried but I can't get you out of my mind, want to do lunch sometime this week? Call me back at...hope you hear from you."

Oh he's smooth...he says it like he does this all the time, and I'm just a girl he called and he couldn't really remember where he met me...uh huh.

Nervous butterflies and I try to calmly call him back...

Our first wedding together, we had been dating for 5 months

We Met In a Bar - Part 1

I figured with our anniversary coming up, I'd share with you how we met.

Now my mom would say, "Sarah why can't you just tell people you met at a party? Back in my day meeting people in bars were for hussies" yes she really did say this, and no she wasn't really kidding.

But that's where we met and it's sort of great watching people's faces as they process where we met.

Like I said before we met at a bar in West Hollywood called Barney's Beanery near the end of May 2003. I was out with my girlfriends from Junior High. He had just joined a new band, yes that's right he was in a band - lead singer/song writer,  and was out with his band mates getting to know each other.

We sat at opposites sides of the booth

My group of friends started talking to his group of friends over the short partitioning wall. He was sitting on the far side and so was I, neither of us were talking to anyone. Besides just listening in on the conversations everyone else was having. My friend got up to get a drink so I went with her. When we got back with drinks, we sat with his table, as some of the guys had moved over to our table to sit next to my friends, so my friend and I sat down at Mr.'s table.

I thought Mr. was cute, but was dating someone at the time* and didn't really totally dwell on it too much. But as the night progressed I was thinking, this guy is pretty cool. We found out we were both working in the valley, I can't remember who asked who, but one of us said, we should meet up for lunch sometime. He didn't have his cell phone on him...so I gave my cell number to his friend.

As the bar was closing down, neither group wanted to leave, but we were being kicked out. As we walked out into the cool air, wondering what next, Mr. and his friend suggest we go back to their place to hang out...since my friend and his friend were sort of digging each other (if you know what I mean), we thought we'd help a sister out and go. I was more than willing to help out.

*side note: my boyfriend and I at the time were having issues and were sort of at a cross roads in our relationship.

Fun Fact Friday

Another Friday is here, yay TGIF!!!! Okay so I have the day off, but for those of you who are working, yay! Weekend is upon us! I'm currently at my parents hanging out with family, and letting Baby Fox get to know his Baby Fox Cousins.Which brings us, lovely readers, another installment of Fun Fact Friday...not sure how many Fun Facts Friday I'll have, but I'll go with it till I don't have any more to say. Of course in list form:

• I still carry a day planner, I know, so 90's right? But I love opening my little day planner and seeing what I have to do for the month. Yep I still use Franklin Covey (is there anything else really?). I've had this same purple day planner for 18 years! Yes that's right, I should be a spokes person for Franklin and how indestructible they are. As you can see I color code it, so at a glance I know exactly what I have to do...dorky I know, but it's worked for me for 14 years, I don't think I adopted the color code until college, you know you're in class bored out of your mind and need something to occupy your time, because class obviously isn't.

•  I met my husband a bar called Barney's Beanery in West Hollywood. He sat in the booth right across from me and my friends. All my friends were talking to someone in his group, we weren't talking to anyone, I walked around my booth to his booth, sat down and introduced myself. That's right, I picked HIM up! We were both dating people at the time (that is a whole other post).

 Picture courtesy of Bareny's Beanery website

• I repeated the second grade. I wasn't failing but school did NOT come easily to me. I don't think I would be where I am today if I didn't repeat second grade, seeing as that math was my hardest subject back then (I could not get the concept of greater than and less than...what?!? You want the alligator to do what?) Fast forward 10 years and my engineering major made me take math classes up to what is equivalent to a Calculus 4. After I repeated second grade, math came easily and I was always a grade ahead in math, thank you parents for that! 

• Speaking of school, I have a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and a Masters of Science in Systems Engineering.

• Mr. wants me to tell you, that he takes all of my outfit posts, he wants full credit.

Hope you enjoyed this weeks, Fun Fact Friday! Until next time! Have a great weekend!