The Story of How We Met (The Valentine’s Day Challenge)

Once upon a time I put a personal ad out to find a man. LOL.

Yes, that is true although that’s not how I felt at the time.

I was on my computer, reading and writing, minding my own business…
Then I received a pop-up ad from Match.com in August of 2001. Yes, match.com that is still on commercials today. (Like the popular devil and 2020 one). Only back in the day, there was no commercials about it.

When I was a young 20-something, match.com was using pop-up ads. This is when the pop-up ads were quite common on this new thing called the “internet” that I had only been using for around two years now.

Anyway… as a single lady living on her own for a few months now with no one special, no prospects after college or at work and I’m not a bar-hopper, it hooked me.

I was the click bait…”Would you like to make new friends and meet interesting people?”
Why, yes, yes I would, Match.com. Thank you.

So an hour or two later, I had set up my online profile, picture and filled out an about me section. I went to bed not giving it much thought.

The next morning I had a few interested prospects, around four or five I think.

The next day I had even more. The next day more.

Oh crap, what had I gotten myself into? This was a bit overwhelming and embarrassing.

My name and picture must have gone to the top of some list.

OK fine, I need a screening system I thought.

So I came up a few questions to ask these potential suitors. The questions were things like… What kind of music do you listen to? Who do you admire and why?

It wasn’t Rocket Science. If I liked the responses (coherent, complete sentences and well thought comments), then you made it onto to the next round. (And this was even before The Bachelorette and The Bachelor too).

Meanwhile, I didn’t know but Match.com tried to “match” you with others
using their system, “Venus”, the compatible match software. But by the time Venus sent my profile as a suggestion to Kirk,
I was on day four of this new chaos.

So, on day four of this madness Kirk emailed me…AKA…You’ve got mail, it’s your future husband (But you don’t know it yet).

So by then I gave him the same spiel with the test and questions… Answer these questions and maybe I’ll keep talking to you…

I’m sure he was like, “Who does this chick think she is? I’ll show her!”
And he did. He wrote the best, well-detailed responses to all of my questions. He stood out from all the others I received.

We continued to exchange emails. I talked to a few others still.
But after a week or two, he was the only one I wanted to talk with.

After a week of email exchanges, I gave him my number and we spoke on the phone. I loved his voice and his laugh. (Still do).

A week after talking on the phone for hours, we agreed to meet IRL (in real life).

I was still overly cautious and worried, so I chose a very public place, a coffee shop in the middle of a mall. It was a Café Du Monde. We met on a Tuesday night after work to keep it casual.

There was chemistry and a few sparks, but we still took it slow. Or he says I said that I just wanted to be friends. And that worked for a short time, but soon it was more than that.

Soon we were inseparable. We fell hard and fast.

We were engaged after four months.

We married a year later, in August of 2002.

Who would have thought that a pop-up ad would change my life like that?

But was it the ad? Or just two people wanting to find someone to connect with? The right place at the right time? Open, willing?

Destiny? Fate? Divine intervention? I guess we’ll never know.

But thankfully, being my writer self, I recorded my feelings then. I have a binder filled with the first few months of our courtship…detailing how we came to be, including emails to friends where I wrote about him and an exchange he had with his mom about how he loved me. It’s so sweet. I’m glad I have this memento for our kids to keep, and maybe someday, grandkids.

I kept all of our original emails. I still have our Match.com profile information. It’s so funny to look back on now – see and have proof of us “falling in love.”

Almost 20 years later, I still love this man. Sure, he drives me crazy. But he sure does love me and take care of me and his girls.

He took care of me very recently too, after the second COVID-19 vaccine shot when I was woke up in the middle of the night, sick and dizzy with extremely low blood pressure. He always takes care of me.

He still holds me passionately. He still tells me I’m beautiful. Even though I feel old and tired with gray hairs and wrinkles. And I know he means it, even when I don’t see it.

He annoys me, teases me, encourages me and makes me coffee and breakfast every morning. But he’s Ross and I’m Rachel. He’s Han Solo and I’m Leia. He’s my guy and I’m his girl. And well, you get the point…

How lucky am I? VERY LUCKY!

How lucky is he? VERY LUCKY!

We have a great story, and we have a great life . And I’m truly thankful for it all.