Brian and I met on Eharmony. My friend Craig signed me up, knowing I never would have done it myself. He filled out my whole profile - I should have figured it out when he slipped some questions like "from 1-7 how would you rate your creativity?" into casual phone conversations... but I didn't. So then I was stuck with zillions of potential dates slamming my inbox, who weirdly were mostly the computer geeky type. Hmmm... Craig is the computer geeky type too. Wonder how that worked. I had some bum dates, then Brian's picture came through. Even though he was a computery type, I thought he was pretty cute, and we zipped right through the question/answer stage. He was just the right combination of coy and revealing, and didn't make any grammar or spelling mistakes, so I didn't toss his profile out! Pretty soon we were having long email chats. I kept asking him to call me, but he wouldn't. I almost gave up on him, but then he asked me to dinner. He met me after work at Bristol's (good choice Brian) and I gave him props for being considerate and picking a restaurant close to the hospital. I, of course, was five minutes late, so when I ran in he was standing by the hostess desk. My first thought was, "Good, still cute!" We sat down and had a lovely dinner (I have no idea what I ate.) There weren't any dreaded conversational pauses or anything. He did make me examine his bowling hand and compare it to his normal hand...but as strange things go, I have seen much worse. In preparation for our date I had studied The Bowling Glossary (by that first date I was only up to H) and boy was I happy I had, because I did get quizzed on bowling trivia. How many balls does Brian normally take to a tournament? What's the maximum number of holes that can be legally drilled into a bowling ball? What are the pins made of? Did I know about oil patterns on the lane? 4 hours later, dinner was over and we found out that we had parked right near each other in the parking lot. Instead of a goodbye kiss, Brian asked, "Do you want to see my balls?" I told him I wasn't that kind of girl on the first date, then looked at his bowling balls in the back of his car. We didn't have a second date for a week and a half.

Our second date didn't start out very well. Brian was going to pick me up in the morning. I had practically begged to meet him somewhere because 1) you aren't supposed to let strange Eharmony guys know where you live 2) he would see my questionable housekeeping skills and even worse decorating skills 3) I have a terrifying attack dog who doesn't like strange men. He would not be deterred and insisted he was picking me up. Since when do I lose a contest of wills? But I lost, and over he came. Somehow, he parked where I couldn't see his car and stood behind the glass door so I couldn't see him. When I came to the door in socks to figure out why the dog was going nuts and foaming at the mouth, I didn't see anything, so I opened the door. There's Brian, and oops, there's the dog launching herself at Brian, and even better, there's Katie sliding in her socks on the hardwood floor trying desperately to catch the dog before Brian's carotids are lunch. When the dust cleared, Brian was inside the house with the dog attached to his knee by the teeth and I was sprawled out on the floor. Even better, Brian had a homemade cake balanced above his head, because my birthday was that week. And he said, "Hi. Are you ok?" And then he looked at the dog, who was still maniacally gnawing at his flesh, and said, "Pretty dog." And I thought, "Well, I'm never seeing him again."

But Brian wasn't very fazed. He wouldn't let me tend to his injuries, and we hid the cake from the dog and left the house. We went to pick up his best friend Jeff and Jeff's wife, Kelley. Who takes their best friends on a second date? But Jeff and Kelley were all kinds of fun, so it worked out well. We went to the City Museum, where we proceeded to climb up ladders, crawl in the ceiling, swing, and slide like crazy oversized kids. If I had known I might not have worn heels. What a blast. Then we went to an early dinner, and took Jeff and Kelley home, then came back to my house to hang out with the now sedate dog and eat some birthday cake. All told, it was the best date of my life, and lasted all day. I know Jeff had fun because he asked me when I was free for our next date even before Brian did!

Despite Lola's fond greeting, Brian called me again, and soon we were seeing each other several times a week. We traveled together to Boston, to New Orleans, and to San Antonio (where Brian singlehandedly drank a 64 oz frozen margarita.) Then we went to San Francisco, where we spent most of a week doing all kinds of touristy things like visiting Alcatraz and hiking in the Muir woods. On the last day of the vacation, Brian took me to a 9 course lunch at The French Laundry, where I had wanted to eat for years and years. I was SO excited. We showed up dressed to the nines and hungry! The restaurant was beautiful. After a few courses, Brian suggested walking around the garden. I thought he was crazy - leave this fabulous meal I'd been looking forward to for years, to walk around a garden? In heels?? No way. Courses roll by, gorgeous, delicious food, and he's still trying to get me to go outside. I was considering it, but more food kept coming! Heavenly, perfect food! Brian pulled out all the stops "I was reading on the internet and people say you should walk in the garden!" Like I am going to listen to random internet people? But finally I relented. We put our chef on hold, and Brian walked me out to the courtyard and we looked at the pretty flowers. I'm wondering why we're not across the street at the culinary garden, and I keep trying to get him to go over there. He wanted to go to the garden, right? Instead, he parked me in front of a bench and started to get down on the ground. "Get up - you'll get dirty!" Here I was, dressed up for this fabulous, very swank restaurant and Brian was going to sit on the wet ground? What was he doing? Then he proposed on one knee, and I had to sit down, and I think I cried a little, and the ring was beautiful, and just what I would have picked had I known anything about it. And the rest of the lunch was even better!