The Story of Us

It's the title of my blog, but I don't think I've ever told the entire story of how we came to be… It all started nearly 8 years ago. I was 19, and my sophomore year of college was coming to an end. There was a lot of impending excitement-the old TGIO fraternity parties, summer break with nothing to do but lounge by the pool with my roomies, bonfires at the beach, d-land trips, country concerts, oh and occasionally tutor at Sylvan a few hours a week-I was livin' the easy life! But first, I had to get through finals week. My two bestest friends and I all lived together. Brooke and I were attempting to cram for finals in our apartment. Megan had already taken her last final, and was a free woman. So obviously, she decided to try and "entertain" us while we were studying. When B and I decided that we just weren't able to concentrate at our apartment, we headed to the TSU (Titan Student Union) to study. This proved to not be an original idea. The entire Greek system seemed to be there "studying" as well. Needless to say, we didn't get much accomplished. I didn't expect to see anyone important, so I was wearing my sorority letters and pj bottoms. I was quizzing myself for a history final using notecards that I had made. Megan was entertaining herself by drawing inappropriate doodles on my notecards and in my textbooks. I'm sure whoever bought that book after me was pretty amused. I was chatting with some friends I knew in between my quizzing sessions when all of a sudden this guy walks in the TSU and over to our table. He was wearing a skin tight wifebeater-type tanktop and gym shorts, and was carrying an 80's style boom box on his shoulder. He announced that he was rehearsing for his Dance 101 final (it was a boy-band dance routine that he offered to show us). Apparently this was John Hall. I had heard about him before. He was Brett's (my roommate Megan's bf now husband) big bro in fraternity. I had also heard that he was insane. I was introduced to him. He asked what I was studying for. I told him it was a history final. He then explained that he knew EVERYTHING there is to know about history and offered to quiz me. I passed. A few weeks went by and I didn't think anything of that guy I met in the TSU. I had a boyfriend. He later told me that he thought I seemed stuck up. Sparks definitely didn’t fly. Early in the summer, I found myself single for the first time since I was 14. I had the same bf all through highschool and the first two years of college. I thought that I needed to be single and experience life on my own for a while, since I had always had a boyfriend. I was a little down and feeling bad about how everything w/ my bf ended so my roommates thought it would be fun to take me out country line dancing at the Crazy Horse in Irvine. There ended up being a big group of fraternity guys that we knew at the Crazy Horse. Apparently Wed nights were college nights. I walked in and before I could even put my purse down, J came up to me and asked if I wanted to "two-step". I agreed and we chatted and danced for a song or two. Later that night, John asked Brett if he could get my phone number. Brett gave it to him, but told him that I had just broken up with a long term bf and probably wouldn’t be interested in anything serious. Over the next few weeks, we would have people over to our apartment, and Megan would invite John, or Brett would suggest we see what John was up to…they were matchmaking right under my nose. We got to know each other over the next several weeks. We would have people over, and John would show up and we would sit on the couch and just talk, sometimes all night. Really-we were just talking…and I learned that this crazy guy with a tongue ring and leopard spotted hair was actually really great. He def had his crazy moments, but we both had a lot in common. We grew up in similar households. He was very close with his fam, and adored his little brothers. Our first few dates actually included babysitting his little bros. He loved cats (and has since let me fill our house with them), and he could recite almost every line to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (just like me!). He also had the Moulin Rouge soundtrack in his car, and we would sing the duet on every drive together. One day, after a bad fight with my parents, he commanded that I get into his car. I had been crying, and was a hot mess. He drove silently to a park in Fullerton. He told me to walk with him along the grass and to leave my phone and shoes in the car. After a couple of minutes of wondering what the heck we were doing there, the sprinklers came on. He told me to run like I did when I was a little kid playing in the sprinklers. It was like a movie. That sealed it for me-I had fallen! Later that summer, he invited me to meet his family at a mini-reunion at Paradise Point San Diego. He asked me to be his girlfriend there. 6 years later, he asked me to be his wife there. A year after that, we got married there. I joke with him now that I married my rebound guy. I thought I wanted to be single and the first guy I dated I ended up marrying. Funny how life works that way. Here's a look at us over the years…