A blog on how we met...

I enjoyed how Mireille put up on her blog how her and her husband met. I knew most of the specifics, but there were still details in there that I had either forgotten or didn't know to begin with. (Like the short skirt on the bike... you're such a wench, my dear...;) )

Anyway, I thought it would be amusing to read how other people hooked up with their husband or wife. So feel free to pick up on this meme and spread it to your blog. In that spirit, I'll tell how myself and Cathy hooked up. Some of you already know the story. However, I seem to have a lot more traffic from people I don't know wandering by lately. So perhaps this will amuse you. And for those of you who know it, well then maybe there will be details that will surprise you.

By my recollection, I first heard of the existence of Cathy in 1999. It was having a conversation with my friend Suzy where I was lamenting my single status and was becoming quickly resigned to never finding a woman. This was not a unique conversation. I have had it many times, with so many of my friends that there were times they likely wanted to whack me with a hammer to shut me up.

This one, however, turned out to be memorable. This isn't a verbatim recollection, but the gist of it is there.

C. I will never find anyone at this rate. I'm 29 and have now reached the state where jetting out of provinces to meet women I chat with online is a good idea (Note: I've only done this twice and, oddly, one of them reads this blog).

S. You need to relax. I have someone perfect for you.

C. Who? Where? When can I meet her?

S. Well, you can't meet her right now; she's not ready yet.

C. What? She needs another 20 minutes at 350 degrees? Come on, Suzy. Who is she?

S. Her name is Cathy, but she's not ready yet. She still has to realize that her current boyfriend is an asshole and dump him.

C. (slightly depressed) Oh, that's all. Jesus, Suzy. That could take forever. Women have been known to go out with assholes for years before even realizing they're assholes. Then they have to try and fix them before they can even think about dumping them because they've invested too much time in them.

S. Patience, Craig. She'll figure it out. Even her mom calls the guy an asshole, to his face (True, by the way).

C. Yeah. Well, we'll see. And you'll pardon me if I don't wait around for her.

So, about two years pass and, unsurprisingly, I remained single. Cathy discovers that her boyfriend is, in fact, an asshole and things end between them. She does some travelling in Europe and teaches in Ontario for a year before heading home. I've moved back into St. John's after spending three years working in Clarenville. I had seen Cathy around a couple of times but she was always with some guy, so I just assumed they were going out (they weren't) and that Suzy was full of shit.

In early November, myself and Suzy head to see Monsters Inc. Just as we enter the Mall, Suzy goes "Oh yeah, forgot to mention, Erin (another friend) and Cathy are going to meet us at the theatre." Fortunately, I am too stunned to realize that this was an obvious set-up on Suzy and Erin's part.

All is going well and we're chatting amongst ourselves. Cathy manages, at some point, to spill popcorn on herself. Rather than just picking it up off her shirt using her hands, she begins eating the popcorn off her breasts (clad in a shirt, perverts), giggling away. And I, sadly, thought the following: "Well, clearly this is a woman I need to get to know a bit better."

After the movie, Suzy and Erin unsubtly dashed ahead leaving us alone. We chatted, discovered a mutual love of Harry Potter. Since the first Potter movie was going to open the following week, I asked her if she wanted to come along with us. A group of about a dozen people were going opening night. She agreed.

We went to the movie, made sure we sat together and shared a popcorn. She also joined us at the Duke for the after-movie analysis. And while, yes, she was there because she liked hanging out with everyone, she was also patiently sitting in the cigarette smoke for about three hours (she's allergic) waiting for me to ask her out.

As she was leaving, and picking up on the death glares of several of the women sitting at the table, I popped up and asked if she was busy Tuesday night because I had a pair of complimentary tickets to see Voices of Avalon (Anitia Best, Colleen Power, Vicki Hynes and Pamela Morgan) at the Arts and Culture Centre. She said yes, she'd like to go.

Which was great. I was in a good mood until I realized one little snafu.

I, in fact, had no tickets to the show. It was just the first thing I could think of to ask her to that didn't involve another movie.

So I was at the box office waiting for it to open the next day and, much to my relief, they had tickets.

The date went well. Other dates went well over the next couple of weeks. However, I had not kissed her yet. Which was perplexing the hell out of her and she was beginning to wonder if this was a "just friends" thing. So, after a coffee date she apparently got tired of waiting and kissed me to see what would happen.

She will cheerfully point out to everyone that she kissed me first. However, I did propose. I think that balances things out.

Things went quite well from there, obviously. There is one more thing worth mentioning. A few weeks after the first kiss, we did Scottish New Year's at our friend Anne's house. It was the first time Anne had seen us together since Harry Potter. She informed me during the evening that Cathy was the One and I was going to marry her.

Anne's kind of scary like that...

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