I used to be very embarrassed about how met. Now, well, not so much. It's a little bit of a long story (with a short ending!), so here goes. But if you're like me and read the last page of a book first (weird, I know!), the short version is we met in the most Jewish way, hiring a matchmaker named JDate.
I am Jewish. This plays a role, I promise. So, yes, I dated a lot. And brought home some boyfriends. They were sometimes nice, sometimes not. Sometimes my siblings and parents like them, sometimes they down right loathed them. But there was always one "fault*" that all of them had... none were ever Jewish. No really, in my quarter-century of dating life that preceded Z I had never dated anyone in my own religion.
Rewind, to the winter of 2008. I had gotten out of a serious relationship (read: he dumped my butt) a few months earlier and hadn't really felt like dating again. Hanukkah was upon us, we were all gathered in my parent's living room lighting candles and opening presents. I was waiting to be handed mine, when my parents said that mine this night wasn't actually something tangible. Huh?! What does that mean?? Well, yup, my parents signed me up for the online Jewish dating website, JDate. Mortifying. Really. Not exactly what a twenty-something wants for a present. After my initial shock, I actually "used" the gift.
Over the next few weeks I was talking to people I found interesting. But no one promising enough to meet in person. Then one night - I actually think it was christmas eve - I started talking to this kid who was in law school. My little brother was looking into law school's so I thought at least I knew something about it. We spoke for a bit. Then I decided I might as well meet one of these online people in real life. He was the one.
The night before New Years Eve, I met Z. We had a great time talking. We watched "Outside Providence." It was going well. He had just gotten out of a 4 year relationship. We both loved the outdoors, movie quotes, sarcasm. Everything was going great. So great I didn't leave for a few days. That's a whole different story, that I am actually quite embarrassed about. But we ended up spending NYE '09 together with all of his best friends from high school.
You may be thinking we then lived happily ever after.... Not quite yet.
We dated for about a month. I thought it was serious. I thought that he did not think it was. He had just gotten out of a long relationship... timing just wasn't right. We stopped speaking. And from then on I referred to him as "a**hole architect." No joke...
So how did our lives cross again? And how did he shed the a**hole from his name? Stay tuned...
*Religious beliefs are never a fault. But in the Jewish culture/religion its nice to marry someone in the same faith. Growing up, my mother always told me (and my siblings) she didn't care about the race, gender, or occupation of the person that made us happy and we chose to share a life with - the only thing that did matter was that they were Jewish. This led to a lot of "what if" conversations when we were kids... 'What if we love a purple, people-eating alien from Mars?!' That was OK as long as my parents would get Jewish grandkids.
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