An Introduction a Long Time in Coming.

Some of you have been waiting for quite some time for this little introduction...and others of you will be pleasantly surprised.

Last August, I went running in my neighborhood. But it was 100 degrees outside, so I was only running for about four seconds before I was like, "who the h*** runs in this stuff," and promptly slowed to a walk so I wouldn't start dry-heaving. I happened to walk past a house where apparently there was some guy in the front yard playing with his nephew (this I found out later). He saw me walk by, thought, "I would like to talk to that girl," grabbed his nephew, jumped in the car, drove around for a bit till he found me, and then drove by several times looking for a wedding ring and trying to think of something to say (I guess I didn't notice the car that drove past four times - please remember that I was about to pass out and was just trying to make it back to my house alive). A few minutes later, I was about to walk into my house when a car pulled up alongside me, and the driver - who I assumed was a happily married father since there was this kid in the car - asked me if I knew where a 7-11 was. I did not. The whole interaction was a little suspicious (thought in back of mind: "I think I'm being picked up on. But there's that kid in the car.") So I went on my merry way and walked into my apartment. He noticed where I lived. I completely forgot about the entire interaction. End of story. Sort of.

A month later, I went to a CES fireside. I was by myself, and not in the mood for socializing, so at the end of it, I stood up, texted a friend, and walked out the door. In that brief moment between me standing up and walking out the door, this guy on the other side of the chapel saw me, thought, "I would like to talk to that girl," and walked around the back of the church, just in time to walk out of the building right behind me (side note: that might seem like an incredible feat, but this guy walks even faster than I do, if that's possible. Match made in heaven.). Out of the corner of my eye, I saw some dude do an about-face as I walked through the foyer and he followed me out. I took note of it and held the door open for him. He thought that was nice and asked me my name. We started talking. I wasn't terribly inclined to chat much, but when I said I was from Seattle, and he said he'd been sailing up in the San Juans, I said,

"WHAT??? REALLY???" smiled real big, and decided I'd talk to him (LOPEZ BRINGS PEOPLE TOGETHER!!!).

That's where it started. He walked me to my car, we chatted for a bit (you know, the basics: His name is Ralph Jones, he's from Salt Lake, he's a pilot for a commercial airline, he'll be the best husband the world has ever seen, etc.). He got my number, and called me that night. This seemed proactive. So we talked. Then he called me Tuesday to ask me out for Saturday, and I gave him my address. The next day when I went running, I was nearing my house on the way back and suddenly remembered that guy who had pulled me over asking for directions to 7-11.

"Um....that's the same guy. WAIT THAT'S THE SAME GUY."

I wasn't about to say anything to him. But then he called the day before we went out and said, "Uhh, this might seem weird, but were you running in your neighborhood last month, and..." I cut him off with, "Wait. 7-11?" He had googled my address to come pick me up and realized it was the same house of the girl he'd asked for directions. Neither of us recognized each other at the fireside. So we had a good laugh and it all seemed very random and coincidental and then we kept dating for a few months - where I discovered that he's a REALLY REALLY GOOD GUY - and then got engaged a couple weeks ago. Weird, huh?