Turn Back Time Tuesday! - How Jeff and I met (long)

From October 2005 to Feb. 2008 I live up in Milwaukee Wisconsin.  I had moved from West Virginia to work at the local ABC station and was so excited to be back in the mid west and only an hour and a half away from my hometown and three of my best friends.  I was 27, about to turn 28 and ready to really "find someone" in 2005.   By 2007 I tried one of those dating websites after feeling I was never going to meet anyone.  While I did date one guy I met on line for a whole month, nothing stuck.  I had nine first dates in the month of June 2007.  Nine!

But the summer before that, my friend Barb said she's met the man I was going to marry.  Yeah right!  I had been set up a few times before with dismal results.  But I let her introduce me to him.  He was President of 2006 Algonquin Founders Days, so he was busy working that when I met him.  My first thoughts? "He seems too old for me!"  (I had been dating more "boys" than "men" if you know what I mean.  At this point I was 28 and he was 34...he was a MAN.)  But he was too busy working for me to really talk to him much.  But Barb was persistent... she invited him out several times when I'd come down to go out and party.  She even invited him to stop by as we were out drinking for my 29th birthday in December.

My 29th Birthday, first pic of Jeff and I ever

At my birthday I really got to talk to him and thought he was the funniest man I'd ever met!  I liked him, and thought he liked me. But he didn't ask for my phone number.  And when I saw him again in February in a group outing at a bar, he seemed to ignore me.  So I thought, "I must have gotten the signals wrong, he doesn't like me." - - - Que me hitting the dating website!  I signed up a few days later.  I didn't see Jeff again from mid February to June.  (Remember I said I had nine first dates in June? Ugh!)  So the end of June in Milwaukee is SUMMERFEST a huge 10 day musical festival and my station had free tickets.  I invited Barb and Mike & Lauren and Matt up for free beer and music.  Barb asked if she could invited Jeff up.  I'd only met him three or four times, but remembered I did like him, so why not?  He was a lot better than the stream of bad dates I had been on that month.

Barb (top) Me (L) and Lauren (R) drunk at Summerfest

Finally, drinking waaay too much free beer, he gave me enough of a signal (he took my hand as we were trying to get towards the drunk bus when the park was letting out) for me to make my move.  Now, it could of been he just didn't want me to get lost - but whatever!  I made the next several moves...but when he left the next day - he still didn't ask for my number. (WTH?) *now admittedly I talked about how I had another first date set up for that night, but still! (BTW- I ended up canceling that date). 

So the next weekend when I was down in Algonquin with Barb, I called him (got his number from Barb's boyfriend) and said "Hi, this is Kati.....from Milwaukee??" and he agreed to meet us out for pizza.  He then had my phone number since I'd called him.  We started talking on the phone and I invited him back up to Milwaukee for a baseball game.  That baseball game, our first time out together without the group.  It was our first real date.  July 21st, 2007.  And we've been together ever since.  Less than eight months from that first date, I had left my career in Milwaukee, moved in with him (our current town house) and he had proposed.  Just five weeks shy of our two year anniversary of dating we got married.  And I am so thankful that Barb kept trying to get us together!  So we met July 2006, started dating July 2007 and this June will celebrate our three year wedding anniversary.  I love you baby!

A wedding gift from a friend was reminisce of our first date: Tickets to a baseball game in July
 July 2009   GO SOX!