Bryan Matthew Friedman

Before he could even talk, Bryan enjoyed eating.  It all started when he wouldn’t take the bottle out of his mouth and it took a new refrigerator and manipulative parents to convince Bryan that his bottle was gone forever.  He would soon learn that there was quite a bit of good stuff to eat outside of the bottle and it wasn’t long before he was using his hands to shove Cheerios and scrambled eggs into his mouth as much as possible.  Thankfully, he did finally learn to use a fork and has been enjoying the world of eating ever since.

Not too long after discovering the gift of food, Bryan discovered the gift of speech. Although his first word was "eh," he was soon speaking in clear sentences, even if he said "S" instead "F" ("This is so sun!").  Finally, he learned to talk like a (mostly) normal person, and as soon as he did, he started talking to members of the female race.  Of course, Bryan’s early experiences with He-Man taught him to save these ladies from the bad guys of the world, and it was then that he began to protect them from the nasty boys at school who chased them.  It wasn’t until years later that Bryan discovered from one of these girls that they liked when the boys chased them.  This pretty much scarred Bryan for life as the "nice guy," but he was still confident that he would find a She-Ra to spend the rest of his life with.

Bryan knew at a young age that it’s the car that gets the woman, so he worked hard to win his first motorized vehicle by entering his name in a drawing at the mall (thanks Mom!).  This netted him his first "chick magnet," and while it was no Corvette, he did do pretty well with it.  Girls from all over the neighborhood would come just to play with Bryan and ride around on the back of his new red motorcycle.  However, while his white LaCoste alligator polo shirt was stylish (even tucked in), Bryan still had a lot to learn about impressing girls (and tying his shoes).

So in the meantime, Bryan was honing his "looking good" skills by wearing a suit every chance he got.  Even with his new hairstyle and awesome flowery tie, Bryan was still a few years away from being the ladies man he would soon become.  He had entered Hebrew school and discovered a whole new challenge – the Jewish female!  Bryan realized he had a lot to learn if he was going to catch one of these girls.  It was going to take more than one boy could handle.  So, it was finally time to become a man.

Bryan studied hard for his Bar Mitzvah, and thankfully, by this time, he had also really learned how to wear a suit.  The Torah allowed him to show off his strength (by holding it), his smarts (by reading the Hebrew in it), and his singing voice (by his chanting of the prayers).  The girls at the event were no match for him as he had to fight them off the dance floor.  Unfortunately, none of these girls were quite good enough for Bryan.  It would take another ten years before Bryan would find his soul mate.

First, it was time for high school and a whole new breed of females – drama girls.  Bryan joined the drama class during his freshman year and never turned back.  He joined the class because of his interest in theatre, but he stayed there because of his interest in girls.  They were all over the place!  But Bryan soon found out that these were not ordinary women.  These were the most high maintenance females ever to exist on this earth – shattering the record previously held by the Hebrew School female students.  Still, he stayed involved, even going as far as dancing, singing, and wearing tights (with really cool boots) to impress the ladies.  Most of Bryan’s already strong social skills were taken to the next level during these years, but this was only the beginning…or maybe it was the end? Bryan was off to college to waste his social skills away while staring at a computer screen all day.

It was while away at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo that Bryan met his future roommates and groomsmen.  He also met plenty of girls, but not in the conventional way.  Instead he fixed their computers, scanned their images for them, found them software and music, and generally got the "You’re such a nice guy, Bryan!" treatment.  It was just like those days on the playground saving the girls from being chased.  Had Bryan taken a step backwards on his road to find a wife?  Probably.  But it turned out that all that time in front of a computer ended up paying off in more ways than one!

After Bryan graduated, and got a well paying job working with computers, he discovered his ideal way to meet women: the Internet!  After finding a few duds on various sites, his Jewish mother offered to pay for a JDate subscription.  He was actually a paying member!  All that meant is he could read the mail from all of the girls he didn’t want to talk to.  He did see one girl who intrigued him, Twinkle16 from Westlake.  She was close by, but she never responded to his message.  It turns out she never responded because she wasn’t a paying member.  However, one day he actually woke up and figured out her "secret code"…that her JDate name was also her AIM screen name.  It only took four years of studying computer science in college for Bryan to be able to figure this out!  It turns out she’s a Jewish girl and a drama girl all rolled into one – the perfect combination!  It was a long and educational journey, but Bryan can’t wait to finally marry his true love, Alison Siegel, and continue on a whole new journey of memories with her.