The Beginning

In true twenty-first century fashion, John and I met at work.  We were both interns at the same organization between undergrad and graduate school. We finally met when I transferred divisions and moved to an office closer to his.  He worked with a friend, now groomsman, who grew up in Athens, so I soon found lots of reasons to stop by their office to talk about mutual friends from home.  After a few weeks of this and many (many!) gchats with my girlfriends about the cute intern, I learned two very important things.  

First, John was starting UNC Law in the fall, which happened to be next door to the School of Government, where I would be starting the master of public administration program.  I can still remember the exact moment he said he would be staying at Carolina after his internship, and even way back then, with fewer than 50 words exchanged between us, I thought there might be a chance.  

Second, I learned that the guys played tennis after work.  So, with the confidence of someone completely infatuated, I piped up that I, too, played tennis.  Now, my parents play tennis and I had been present at some family outings to the courts, but I did not play tennis.   I rushed down to the pro shop and picked me out a pretty blue racquet and raced home to put on my cutest believe-me-I'm-a-tennis-player outfit.  Well, I must have provided the boys with enough entertainment that first disastrous day because they let me come back.  

After a few weeks of after-work tennis matches, our co-worker/co-player went out of town {thanks, D!}, and I got the chance to ask John out.  That's right, I asked him out.  Well, I asked him to join me and a group of friends at a Durham Bulls baseball game.

We had a great time talking and laughing and pretty well ignoring the rest of the group, but I don't think I really sealed the deal until we were leaving the game.  

You see, I have this thing for mascots.  

 

Bulldogs, Mountaineers, Arthur the Aardvark, fire dogs, I don't discriminate.  

As we were leaving the game, we ran into I hunted down, Wool E. Bull, the newest animal mascot for my menagerie. Now, most people wouldn't want to reveal this level of obsession on what may or may not be a first date, and normally I wouldn't either, but I just couldn't contain my excitement, so we ended up with this little souvenir:

Just look at that excitement!  This past Saturday we went to another Bulls game, and I was bound and determined to get a picture of us with Wool E. Bull.  As we walked to the gates, there he was!  I nearly knocked some little cub scouts out of the way to park myself right next to him.  With visions of fun pictures for the wedding dancing in my head, I smiled big and this is the picture we got...

 

Guess Wool E. thought I made the wrong choice of who to go home with at that game three years ago.