mush

hi everyone!

sorry for my absence. i've been cursed with a wicked cold for the last few days, which hasn't knocked me totally flat but has bestowed me with that crusty-dry-over-blown-nose syndrome and some seriously sleepy eyes, so i've opted to sleep in rather than attempt a cute outfit for the last couple of days. instead, today, i thought i'd do something i don't generally do, and write a little bit about the night sam and i met.



it wasn't so long ago, actually - september 1, 2009. i was about to graduate from culinary school and getting ready to move to chicago; i was feeling really great about life, about myself, about being single. it was a tuesday, and i'd attended a make-up class that evening - it's so funny how you look back and think, "man, if i hadn't been such a slacker and missed that one class, i never would have met the man of my dreams." (yes, if the title of this post didn't give it a way, this is going to be a post full of ucky-love-stuff.) after class i decided to traipse over to my friend kt's apartment, and called to let her know, and she warned me that her husband had a friend over, a guy he'd known since high school. "maybe you'll like him, though," she said. not likely, i thought.

they were on the roof when i got there, and when i stepped out i was greeted by striking green eyes on an almost too-handsome face - oh, this guy was SO not my type. i decided he was probably too good-looking to not be full of himself, and promptly ignored him. after awhile, though, talking to my friend while half-listening to his conversation, i noticed that he was controlling the music, and kept playing stuff i loved: april march, beirut, and so on. and he was FUNNY. like, really, exactly-my-annoying-kind-of-sarcastic funny. fueled my a few glasses of white wine, i finally turned to say something to him (if i remember correctly, in fact, to make fun of him for being vegetarian,) and the rest, as they say, is history. we talked for hours, me laughing hard enough for it to register in the top 3 workouts of my life, and my poor friend, who is an early-to-bed, early-to-riser, kept getting pleading looks from me to pleeease stay up another half hour so i could bask in the presence of this guy. i remember at about 1 in the morning feeling like i suddenly woke up - i'd been totally in this zone, so comfortable with him it was like being with myself, and i'd managed to consume the better part of a bottle of wine. time to go. i stood up suddenly, said goodnight, and left without a real goodbye to him (in fact falling down the stairs in the process.) my friend followed me to the door and said, "what WAS that? i've never seen you like that with anyone before. does that happen to you a lot?" and i replied, dazed, something like "no. never," and left to walk home. all the way, the flaming lips song, "suddenly, everything has changed," rang through my head.

the next day i came back to kt's and shyly mentioned that i thought her husband's friend was cute. "good," she said, "because i already gave him your number."

and the rest, as they say, is history. i turned down a job in chicago, lost a deposit on an apartment in the ukranian village, and got a place in brooklyn instead; two months after that, he asked me to be his bride. of course, i said yes.

and one month from tomorrow, i get to say i do.



no more mush from me - i promise, tomorrow, to be back to the regularly scheduled programming.

** photos by the beautiful, incredibly talented, and ridiculously sweet jessica pernikoff.