How We Met: Rachel’s Story

I can still recall parts of his online profile description:

“I am very dedicated and passionate about anything and everything I do. I want somebody who can be open with me and accept me for who I am, who is independent, and passionate about their interests, and knows how to have a good time.

I try to treat the one I am with like a princess – I insist on nothing less. I believe that relationships are equal partnerships, which is why I want to be with someone who is independent and can think for herself.”

Little did I know how much more deeply those words would resound 10 years later. I met a man who knew himself deeply and knew what he wanted! But that is a story for another day; today’s story is how this incredible, passionate, dedicated popped unexpectedly into my life in the winter of 2007.

After a string of bad dates, I was ready to give up on the romantic companion search for a while. My friend Marshay said she was feeling the same, but wanted to give online dating a try. Having never considered that a really option before, and as person who is always up for trying something new,  I decided to give it a whirl. We both signed up for Yahoo! Personals which, at the time, was a free online dating service for users of Yahoo! Mail. (In 2010 it was rolled into Match.com). One of the benefits of Yahoo! Personals was that you could see which members had viewed your profile. I’d received a good number of views but Greg’s intrigued me!  I mean, what American girl who grew up watching Disney wouldn’t be immediately smitten with someone who insists on nothing less than treating their partner like a princess?!

There was only one problem, he looked at my profile and didn’t say anything. Thankfully, Greg had skirted the system and entered his email into his profile message by placing random capital letters throughout – anyone who could crack the code could send a message to his email account. I send him an instant message (IM) instead:

“Thanks for looking at my profile and not messaging me, jerk!”

Yup. That was my first message. Independent is code for feisty, right? Did he want someone feisty? I was about to find out! He responded very politely saying,

“I’m sorry, who is this?”

I explained who I was and send him one of the free, scripted messages that unpaid members of the site could use. The moral of the story: he didn’t connect with me after viewing the profile because I lived in Maryland. It was a reasonable excuse, as that Takoma Park was about a 90 minute drive from where he lived in Virginia. Thankfully, once we started talking we realized that the distance didn’t matter – we were meant to connect. After chatting online for a few days, we upgraded to phone conversation, and then decided to meet in person.

Greg and I worked complete opposite schedules. He worked Monday to Saturday, 4:00pm – 11:00pm, and I worked Monday to Friday, 8:30am – 5:00pm. When I was leaving work, he was just getting started…and hour farther south. Needless to say, meeting in person was not an act of convenience for either of us. The decision to schedule a face-to-face hello came right around Valentine’s Day; it couldn’t be on Valentine’s Day because the restaurant would be keeping him longer due to the take-your-sweetheart-to-a-fancy-dinner rush. We agreed to meet instead on February 15.

To make things even trickier, I was scheduled to take a flight to Boston early the next morning for a work conference. Since he often didn’t leave work until at least 10pm, that mean we wouldn’t be able to meet anywhere until at least 10:30pm or 11:00pm. Common sense would have been to just wait until I returned from the trip, but this boy was not common sense, he was my better half. So we decided to meet at my apartment that evening, which would also provide for a bonus roommate approval. Gretchen helped keep me company while I waited, very impatiently, for the my man arrive.

After helping the poor guy navigate some wrong turns in South East DC it was time to meet him at the door to my apartment. Though the nerves were in high gear as I walked down the stairs, they immediately melted away when he took me in his arms for the first of millions (perhaps billions) of warm embraces.

We talked all through that first night, and the next three from my hotel room in Boston. Sleep was NOT on the agenda of this adult-woman-turned-teenage-girl. And as soon as I returned from Boston, my prince picked me up from the airport with flowers and coffee!! Despite the distance, we were inseparable, gladly making the effort to spend time together each and every night.  I was deeply smitten. I still am.

Photo Credit: Catalina Jean Photography