Katie's story

The first time I really spent time with Jaime was at a birthday party for my then roommate, Amanda. He taught me how to play Dominion, and we chatted about silly YouTube videos we liked. I didn't think much of it that day, except for a quick, but powerful thought that maybe I had put up with too much bad stuff in previous relationships, that there are still guys who are kind, considerate, and care about other people deeply.

Then a couple weeks later, we were at a game night at a friend's house, (as Amanda likes to call it, the game night that will live in infamy) where everyone was being silly and "poking" each other on Facebook, even though they were in the same room. Jaime took forever to come into the 21st century, so he didn't have a smart phone and looked left out. So I texted him a poke instead. He texted back. It became a mild, technology inhibited war. Amanda told me there was one palpable moment that night when we very obviously went from talking and chatting with everyone, to having laser focus on only each other, and that she could almost see Jaime's internal dialogue going, "Mine. Mine." (said in the seagull voice from Finding Nemo, obviously.) We left and she said, "What the heck just happened? I think you could have Jaime in 5 minutes if you wanted him." I responded, "I don't know, but I don't think it would even take that long."

Two days later I found a printed out picture of a Facebook "poke" in my car. (Talk about analog, right?) After a couple other events we went to together, I also found more Facebook related things in my purse.

After discussing with some friends, we decided that the most logical solution was to get a key to his house from his roommate, and break into his room and turn his wall into a Facebook wall. Obviously. With the help of some great friends, I "checked in" to his bedroom. (You know me, always so subtle.) Jaime said he got back from his conference a little sad that I hadn't texted him much while he was gone. And then he felt that weird sensation of "someone has been in my room and moved my stuff." I think I won, he still hasn't tried to one-up me.

I remember being at a friend's house a couple days after Jaime and my first, flipping through one of her roommate's wedding magazines, and going, "OMG. If this works out, I'm going to have to plan an ORANGE wedding." Her response wasn't "Wow, you're getting ahead of yourself," but "GOOD LUCK WITH THAT." I've known from a month into us dating that I wanted him to be my partner in crime forever, and I'm so excited to be starting our lives together officially!

Jaime's story

It was about 2 and a half years ago that I started bumping into Katie. One of my earliest memories of her was being at a party where we were all playing board games. I watched her make a move in the game that was particularly backstabby, and thought to myself "wow, she plays like I do." We started having some good conversations and that night, the group started using the old "poke" feature on Facebook. But since I didn't have a smartphone, I simply sent Katie a text that read "poke."

In the week that followed, I started pranking her. One night while we were at a musical, I put a few like Facebook "like" signs in her purse. And with the help of her housemate, I put a big Facebook "like" sign in her car.

And then she retaliated. I came home from a conference to find that someone had been in my room. Someone who took the time to recreate a Facebook news feed on my bedroom wall with markers and construction paper and pictures. Someone who was pretty cute.

We've been together ever since and it's been incredible to spent the past few years growing alongside someone who is strong in a lot of ways I'm weak. She has been a wonderful partner who I'm always learning things from, and I'm excited to see where the years ahead of us take us!