Our Story…Part I

I love hearing the stories of how couples met and after five years of dating, I’ve been asked “our story” many times.  Oh, how I wish it were sweet and simple, but it is quite the opposite:  long and complicated.  So get comfy, you’ll be here a while ;)

Back in April 2002, I had just wrapped up my second play with Decatur Civic Chorus and was newly dating a fellow cast member, who also happened to be my dance partner, Matt (gotta love theatre relationships ;))  He went to a different school so he and some other fellow cast members (including my best friend Bryan) opened me up to a whole other group of friends.  Anyway, for our first date, we went to see one of our dear friends, Nikki, in Backstage Theatre’s production of Alice in Wonderland.  As we were walking into the show, we ran into another one of Nikki’s friends, Bobbie Sue and her date and chatted for a few minutes.  Now, I wish I could remember that conversation because I didn’t realize how important it would eventually become.

Nikki & I somewhere around that time :)

Fast forward about 2 months (June 2002).  My boyfriend and I were no longer together and I was starting work on the next play – Backstage Theatre’s production of “Sound of Music”.  I had never done a play with them and my sweet friend Nikki as well as my dance teacher (who was choreographer) not only got me a spot as a dancer in the play, but also a job as the assistant choreographer.  I fell in love with my new BTC (Backstage Theatre Company) family and the coffee shop/bookstore/playhouse where we rehearsed, Studio One. 

Although the aforementioned boyfriend and I were no longer together, we were conveniently partnered together for the dance scene.  He and I were fabulous on stage together…but not so great off-stage.  Because of this, our relationship ended bitterly so I was not the happiest camper about the current situation.  Anyway, one day I was hanging out at Studio One and in walked my best friend Bryan and the guy that was with Nikki’s friend at Alice in Wonderland.  I didn’t really recognize him, but first thing he said was, “Hey, aren’t you the girl that’s dating Matt?"  Of course I answered how any newly dumped girl would, “Was…we broke up, I don’t want to talk about it”  and then proceeded to tell him how much of a jerk he was…I told you, I was a little bitter ;)  He also told me that his relationship ended right about the same time mine did (after one fateful band trip that all of the above were involved in better known as the Tampa incident)

As the weeks went on, he started dropping by Studio One more and more often.  I had NO clue what his name was*, but we spent hours (when they were working on scenes where no choreography was involved) talking. 

*Funny side story:  I never caught his name when we met.  Nikki always talked about her friend Bobbie Sue dating a guy named Patrick, so I just assumed that was his name ;)  My friend Nikki got a new phone and when she ran in to do a scene one day, she told me that she was expecting a phone call from her new boyfriend and for me to answer and let him know she’d call right back.  I did exactly as she asked (and made sure to tell her how cute he sounded over the phone), and when Nikki attempted to call her boyfriend back, he said he hadn’t called.  Her immediate response was, “Oh, must have been Alex” and I had NO clue who she was talking about, even though I had talked to the guy for hours.  She finally pointed him out the next time he came by :)

As the months went on, we had seen each other just about every day at the studio, but hadn’t gone on an official date yet.  He had met my parents about a month into us talking, due to an unfortunate purse snatching incident, but that was about as far as it went. 

One day in early August, the cast was painting sets out back to get ready to move into the Princess Theatre for show time.  Some how, Alex and I got left outside by ourselves and we got started talking about movies that we wanted to see.  He proposed that we go see one as soon as we finished painting, and we managed to sneak out early, all covered in paint, to go see a showing of this

Image linked to source

Yep, we went to see Austin Powers:  Goldmember as our first date…what were we thinking right? ;)  Anyway, I should have realized that I really liked him because I went on a spur of the moment date, to see a silly movie, in Sofee’s and a tank top, covered in paint…which is so not me!

Anyway, I think this post is long enough so come back tomorrow for Part II :)