from Erica's point of view
I dated a variety of guys in my early twenties, but none of them really met what I was looking for. I grew tired of the dating scene in South Carolina, and also became unhappy with my job because it seemed like it wasn't going to go anywhere. I thought about places I could possibly move to, and the Washington, DC area came to mind. I was involved in the IT field, so jobs were more plentiful and I still had friends in the general area from my childhood.
I started looking for a job, but it was kinda hard since no one wanted to pay for me to move. In the meantime, my friend Cherrel and I had a weekly ritual where we would go on the SC area of Craigslist and laugh at the pictures people posted in the dating section. Some of them were downright nasty! This eventually progressed to my wondering what the men were posting up in the DC/MD/VA area on Craigslist. So one night, I checked it out and couldn't believe it because there were about 100x more posts PER DAY there than in the SC one.
I checked the ads frequently, and one day I came across this simple ad that asked about a favorite tv show. It was nothing offensive, and it seemed "normal" compared to some of the other stuff on the site. I was bored, and I decided to respond. My last line was something to the effect of he probably wouldn't reply because I didn't even live in the area, but I was trying to relocate. I didn't mean it as a challenge necessarily, but he took it that way. ;)
Jim and I started conversing back and forth, and it got to the point where I would check my email constantly, hoping for a quick response. I clearly remember the first time we spoke on the phone - he called me and I let it ring a few times before I answered and it became something we joked about. But that first real phone conversation was so great - it felt like we had known each other for a very long time.
I met him for our first date a few days after I moved up to Virginia. It was a fantastic date, and I was shocked to see that 7 hours had passed! I could have talked with him all night. I was eager to see him again, and we quickly made plans for a second date.
It wasn't long at all before I realized that this was the man I wanted to spend my life with. He was everything I had been looking for, and more. His family was eerily reminiscent of my own. We talked about our future, and I was eager to move on with the rest of our lives.
My wish was finally granted in November 2009 when we took our second annual trip up to Pittsburgh for Light Up Night weekend, and he proposed. I am incredibly happy, and I can't wait to be Jim's wife!
from Jim's point of view
Our story started with a question.
My New Year’s Resolution for 2008 was to get back out on the dating scene. The problem was that I wasn’t sure exactly how to do that, so I started on Craigslist.
I didn’t think I’d finish there.
After a few minutes spent looking over the schlock that served as postings, I came to the realization that I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t talk about myself, post a picture, do all the self-aggrandizing things people in the online dating world do. And I wanted someone who felt the same. I was looking in the wrong place.
So I posted something a little off-beat, a simple question: “What’s your favorite TV show?” At least I’d get some interesting responses, right?
One wrote back that she liked Grey’s Anatomy, ER, and had been a Chicago Hope fan back in the mid-1990s. I wasn’t a fan of any of those shows. But something about this email stood out:
“I don’t even live in the DC area, although I am trying to relocate there, so chances are you won’t reply…”
Well, I showed her.
Erica and I exchanged emails for the next month and a half – and, gradually, found ourselves emailing multiple times a day. Then there were phone calls, and then we decided to meet after she had made the move to Northern Virginia.
I’ll never forget the first time I saw her, walking out of the front door of her apartment building in Arlington, with her bright happy eyes and contagious smile. We went to dinner, we had desert, we hung out on the rooftop terrace of her building and talked until seven hours had passed like the blink of an eye.
When we got done with that first date, she asked me when she could see me again. The answer was easy: “How about tomorrow?”
After a second date that featured a brief run-in with some members of Arlington’s excellent law enforcement personnel (long story), there was a third date, and a first kiss in the most romantic of locales, the Ballston Commons Parking Garage. Then there were more dates, and pretty soon Erica and I would see each other three or four times each week.
It wasn’t enough for me, though. As we got set to kick off our second Christmas Season together later in 2009, though, one thing was crystal clear: Erica was the greatest thing that ever happened to me, and whatever guardian angel had brought her into my life did not intend for me to let her leave it.
So up on Mt. Washington, overlooking the Pittsburgh skyline, I asked another question. This may sound odd, but it was easier than the question that started our relationship; this time, I knew just who I was talking to, and I knew just what answer I wanted.
Lucky for me, she said “yes.”
