to die by your side is such a heavenly way to die (the meet-cute of jeff + brooke)

i've said it once and i'll say it again: the courtship of brooke mosman + jeff stapleton was fast. but it really didn't feel all that speedy. i never felt rushed or panicked or out-of-control. rather i felt excited and invigorated and alive! exclamation point and more synonyms for the word excited!

that said, exactly one year ago from today, i met jeff stapleton. it was a frigid january day, much like this one, and i was skipping class to grab a diet coke (school is hard, you know?) and ran into my avery-friend. she begged me to walk her to class and we sat outside on a bench, freezing and chatting, when jeff + his friend walked up to chat with avery. they were family friends from california and cafeteria-buddies.

all i can remember is that we shook hands and he went on and on and on about how he had spray-painted the design on his baseball tee-shirt he was wearing. i was freezing and diet coke-less and was mildly interested...mostly because i though the was cute and partly because i found it interesting how interesting he found himself (self-indulgence will be a trait our kids will surely inherit). also how did avery have a friend i didn't know about?! i cute one, at that? the dreaded possessive friend, ready go!

intrigued and bored, i told avery about how i thought he was cute. and tan. and was he always like that? we facebook stalked him to insure that he was single (he was! very!) and normal (he was! sort of!). i remember scrolling through his statuses and one of them was: to die by your side is such a heavenly way to die.

...a sensitive type? or aren't those smith's lyrics? ...is he stable?

nonetheless, avery + i composed a hilariously forward message laced with wit and delight and movie quotes. in the light of the day, we composed one hell of a creepy message.

...and one week later, he called me and we went out (i think he needed some time to stew over the message)
and the rest is history. or something like that.

happy friday, friends! feel free to celebrate the meet-cute of jeff + i with some cryptic facebook statuses and a diet coke or three...i'm making up for old time's sake because, thinking back about it, i don't think i ever had one that day.

edited to add: jeff peeked over my shoulder and said that i am such a liar! apparently he mumbled three words about his shirt and claims that our whole encounter lasted less than thirty seconds. pffft.