How We Met - His Story

This is my husband's version of the events that transpired the night we met.  The rules of this assignment included not reading each others story until the final copy was completed.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading "his story," and on several occasions busted out laughing as we both recounted some of the more comical happenings. 

Our mutual guy friend is located in the center of this picture.

Here we are at Sandy's on May 7th, 1999.

His Story

It was the night of May 7, 1999, and I had just returned to Nebraska from spending 4 months in Detroit, Michigan doing some medical school rotations. I was actually on my way out to Portland, Oregon to do some more rotations but had a free night to catch up with some college friends in Lincoln. Our first stop was Sandy’s, a well-known starting point for a night of bar hopping…nothing like starting off with a tall glass of some Elk Creek Water, their signature drink. It usually didn’t take long for one of my buddies, we’ll name him ‘Chad,’ to run into people he knew. And sure enough, after a drink or 2, he was off to mingle with a group of girls standing across the bar while Joe and I continued to hold up the wall….someone has to do it. There was one girl in the group that definitely stood out from the crowd. She, of course, was very striking, had beautiful big eyes and a gleaming smile with nice white teeth, always a plus. She had petite, yet athletic figure with great legs and a NICE backside. But it didn’t take much observation to realize there was more to her than looks. She was very engaging, had an air of confidence, and seemed to devote her entire attention to whomever she was talking to…not one of those types who was always looking around for someone better in the bar. So yes, it looked as if Chad was reeling in another one with his innocent harmless flirtatious way. Much to my surprise he returned to the ‘guys’ and said he wanted to introduce me to someone. After disclosing that he had dated this girl’s younger sister, we strolled over and, after a brief introduction, effortlessly glided into a very pleasant conversation. What did we talk about? Now you’re asking a lot. Remember, men are very visual people and yes, my eyes were stimulated. I just remember how very comfortable we both were chatting for quite a while. After leaving to go have a drink together at another bar, we reunited with our 2 groups of friends outside of Iguana’s, the usual final stop in the bar hopping routine. We then decided to continue the night at a friend’s apartment for a final drink. The post-bar hopping party, unfortunately, didn’t end as well as I had hoped. We didn’t really have the opportunity to talk much because Diane, of all the places to sit in the apartment (i.e. on a sofa with room for 2), decided to sit over in the corner on a single seat lounge chair….nice choice Diane, way to create an opportunity. Soon the mood for everyone seemed to fizzle and it was time to end the night. Unfortunately for the guys, the night was not quite over. As we walked to the parking lot, we quickly saw my friend’s car hoisted up on a tow truck ready to be towed down to the city pound for parking illegally. After politely declining the offer to pay this respectable honest tow truck driver a lump sum of about $100 cash to release the vehicle to us, he proceeded to take the vehicle to the city pound without a second thought. Needless to say, after getting off to a great start the night didn’t end so well. I didn’t even get Diane’s phone number.

The following day despite the excitement of the evening being over, I knew I’d made a connection with this girl. So after arriving in Portland, I was able to procure Diane’s phone number. Several days after leaving 2 messages (YES, 2 MESSAGES) on her voice mail and beginning to have doubts about the connection, she finally returned my call. I knew early on during our long distance phone conversations, that this woman would be my wife one day. After returning to Omaha to finish medical school a few months later, we commenced dating and ultimately became engaged about 1 year later.