Lost in Seattle

As Holly’s frighteningly-photographic memory reveals in her comment to yesterday’s “Happy Anniversaries” post, my account of events leading up to Amy’s and my first date 6 years ago wasn’t entirely accurate or complete (Holly: you and I will discuss this off-line, Missy.) Also, Liana expressed a desire to hear the real story, so here goes….

Amy and I first met under less-than-ideal circumstances. This was shortly after I started working at the Law School, so probably October 1998, or thereabouts. The Law School’s web site featured photographs of all professors, and Amy had somehow managed to avoid capture until then. One day, I received a call from Amy’s boss asking if I could arrange an appointment with Amy to take her picture with the school’s digital camera and post it on the web.

We had a vague appointment on a certain day, but someone else had the camera then so I postponed. I didn’t think anything of it, but Amy had dressed up for the occasion and was annoyed about having to do on another day.

We rescheduled for the next day. I was irritated about having to do this since “staff photographer” wasn’t part of my job responsibilities. Amy wasn’t happy about it either because she hates having her picture taken. We were both in bad moods and the photo session was highly awkward. But I do recall thinking: “Hmmm, she’s really cute.”

Over the next year-and-a-half, I had but a handful of encounters with Amy. I had hired a staff member who did most of the computer support, so I rarely got out “in the field.” Plus, Amy’s unit was pretty self-sufficient and didn’t require a lot of services from my department.

Then, that one fateful day in March 2000 came about. There indeed was a bagel party during spring break, but Amy did not throw herself at me as I depicted in yesterday’s tale (as I’m sure you all guessed). Rather, we talked about her recent purchase of bedroom furniture on eBay, my ongoing search for vintage clothes, and where to get a good cup of coffee in Madison. Amy was pleasantly ebullient as she was about to leave for a trip to Baja with her friend Jen. She was quite a different person from the one I met on the other end of a camera lens 18 months earlier. And I remarked to myself again: “She really is cute.”

After I returned to my office, I realized I wanted to get to know her more. I emailed her and asked her out for coffee for sometime after she returned from her trip. She responded and suggested we go out for “coffee-colored beer” instead. The day she returned—March 21—we headed down State Street to the Great Dane brew pub. Amy was bubbling over with tales of her adventures in Baja and she did most of the talking that night. We bonded over our appreciation of the movie Being John Malkovich, which was playing at the time, and learned that both loved sushi. We ended the evening at Wasabi, Madison’s only sushi restaurant, and then I drove her home.

Later on, Amy revealed that she remembered very little about that night since she was jet-lagged. Also, as I reported yesterday, she didn’t even realize she was on “a date.” After that night, I embarked upon a campaign of trying to spend more time with her without seeming over-eager or desperate, and, luckily enough, circumstances were such that we had several low-pressure occasions to hang out together before we finally fell into each others arms and declared our undying love.

Damn, there I go again….