How It All Started

Alison: I have an idea for our “How We Met” section.

Bryan: What?

Alison: Let’s write it in a script like we’re talking.

Bryan: Like, we’ll write up what happened as if we were there?

Alison: No, more like we sit here on the couch and I’ll just type as we recall how we met and the first date and stuff. So like, let’s start where you IMed me when you figured out my JDate name was my AOL Instant Messenger name.

Bryan: I had to leave for the weekend to go to Las Vegas and we talked for like 5 minutes on IM but I said I had to go because I had to pack to leave. And I guess you got the impression that that meant I didn’t want to talk to you.

Alison: Yup. I thought you were one of those guys who had a taste and had enough and made up a lame excuse that you’d be gone for the weekend. I assumed we’d never talk again and I was bummed since I thought we started to have a nice chat. Even then, Bryan, you were leaving a girl wanting more.

Bryan: But then I called you when I got back.

Alison: No, you IMed me when you got back.

Bryan: Yeah, that’s what I meant.

Alison: Ok, so you got back from your weekend trip and it was a Monday night. You IMed me just as I was starting to close down the computer and get to bed.

Bryan: You had an "Avenue Q" buddy icon and I had just seen "Avenue Q" on Broadway like 4 months before.

(Bryan counts on his fingers back to March.)

Bryan: No, 5 months before.

Alison: Right, well that’s because "Avenue Q" is one of my favorite shows. I was really surprised that you recognized that.

Bryan: I was trying to flex my theater knowledge because I could tell that you liked theater.

Alison: Well, it worked. I was impressed. We talked online that night for … how many hours?

Bryan: I think like 3 or 4.

Alison: Yeah, that sounds right. I think I remember going to bed around 2 or 3ish.

Bryan: I was really tired the next morning but I wrote you an e-mail first thing.

Alison: Yeah, I blushed like a little girl. I was pretty stoked to get an e-mail from you. I think that’s what started a week-long e-mail chain. Since I wasn’t working yet –

Bryan: Actually it’s called a “thread.”

Alison: Okay. Thread. Anyway, that was the start of a very long thread of e-mails that I was able to easily write because I wasn’t working yet since I had only been home from college for a couple months and was still on the job hunt.

Bryan: You were writing an e-mail a minute and I was trying to keep up with you from work and I got very little work done that week. But I remember the next day, you didn’t respond at all because you had errands to run and I was really upset and I didn’t know what to do.

Alison: Don’t worry. I was…

Bryan: You were getting pants hemmed.

Alison: I know. I always have to get pants hemmed.

Bryan: Cuz you’re a shorty.

Alison: Well you’re a tall-y. Anyway, I think you called me the next night. That was a Tuesday. I was so excited. I remember my mom heard me on the phone and knew I was talking to a new JDate prospect since my voice goes up a few octaves when I’m flirting.

Bryan: We talked for a really long time because I remember having to plug my phone in and I was chained to the wall because my battery was about to die.

Alison: I believe we figured out that it was about a 7 hour phone call. We’re nuts.

Bryan: 7 hours? I thought it was like 5 or 6.

Alison: You called me at about 8. I think we hung up around 3.

Bryan: That’s 7 hours.  We talked for the next two nights.

Alison: So when did you ask me out on a date?

Bryan: I don’t remember. I think probably the second night.

Alison: That’s right. I remember you said you wanted to take me out on Thursday but you had a final for your night class so it would have to wait til Friday. Impulsive Me wanted it right then, but I had to wait.

Bryan: I called in sick on Friday and took a whole day off work.

Alison: Right. And that day I went shopping for a new outfit. Lauren Saul helped me pick out a shirt at Anthropologie.

Bryan: I e-mailed you the entire itinerary of the date and you approved it. It consisted of dinner, miniature golf, and hanging out afterwards.

Alison: Right. I mentioned that I love Italian food and I like Gino’s Trattoria in Thousand Oaks. So that’s where you took me. It was a nice dinner, although a little awkward since we had only known each other on the phone and online and hadn’t interacted live before. But by the end of dinner, I feel like we really relaxed and got comfortable.

Bryan: I’m sure you had penne with meat sauce.

Alison: And I’m sure you had chicken parm –

Bryan: Marsala actually.

Alison: Oh. Well, it’s usually either chicken parmesan or chicken marsala so I could’ve been right!

Bryan: Then I took you to Golf N’ Stuff, my favorite first date.

Alison: I can’t believe you recycled a date idea on me.

Bryan: But it was my own. Actually, it’s from Karate Kid.

Alison: Right. I get it. You like Karate Kid. But, you used that date on other girls. I should’ve been special!

Bryan: But I didn’t know that at the time.

Alison: Good cover.

Bryan: Then I took you back to my house!

Alison: I know. I can’t believe I went back to a strange guy’s house. I swore I’d never do that.

Bryan: I let you win at Scrabble. You cheated and used non-English words and I let it slide because you were cute.

Alison: I didn’t cheat. I was expanding your vocabulary.

Bryan: You cheated.

Alison: You let me.

Bryan: Then we went to the park right after that.

Alison: Yep. We walked around and played on the swings. I think it was like 11 p.m. There were lots of spiders out in huge webs! You held my hand.

Bryan: I should’ve kissed you. But I didn’t want to be that guy.

Alison: I always say I never kiss on a first date but I think I would’ve let you if you tried. Oh well. There you go again, leaving a girl wanting more!

Bryan: So after the park, I took you home. I think we sang "Avenue Q" in the car.

Alison: Yep.

Bryan: And then we saw each other for like five days straight.

Alison: Yeah, it was like the date that never ended.

Bryan: I met your dad the next day.

Alison: Sort of by accident.

Bryan: He was outside, like, watering plants or something.

Alison: Yeah, we had just moved into that house and we still didn’t even have furniture. I was so embarrassed. I think we spent the rest of the days going to the theater, seeing a movie, and eating dinner. I was getting addicted!

Bryan: We definitely ate a lot of food together.

Alison: That’s us – two Jews who can eat. At least it made you know I wasn’t a JDate fraud.

Bryan: I already knew that.

Alison: Well, I never suspected that JDate would be the way I’d meet my husband. Especially since I went on JDate just to date casually. But, I guess it’s true what they say – the best things happen when you don’t expect them. Do you have anything else to say?

Bryan: I could keep yapping on about the next year.

Alison: Okay, well, we have to save that for the other sections on this website.

Bryan: Okay.

Alison: Okay.