Our Story
First Encounter
On a fateful day in 2007 (April 5 to be exact). Katie boarded her usual red-eye flight from San Diego to Atlanta. As she was putting her bag up in the overhead bin, she was having a little trouble (as Matt likes to say), so this friendly guy helped her out. To which, Katie responded "Thanks" and promptly turned around to roll her eyes. Low and behold, this guy sits down next to her."Oooh, he's kind of cute" Katie thinks.
"Hi, I'm Matt" he says. And they do their introductions "Where are you going?" "Oh that sounds fun" etc.
Matt keeps playing with these papers as they talk. He folds them, unfolds them, puts them in the seat pocket, takes them out... So Katie asks "What are those papers you keep messing around with?" To which Matt responds "Oh, I'm a firefighter. I'm taking a test in San Diego." (Thinking he might as well pull the firefighter card.) But, Katie has more important things on her mind, like sleep. Remember it -is- a red eye flight which lands at 6am in Atlanta, and she has to work at 11am. So, she keeps hinting things like "Oh, I'm so tired." "Wow, can you believe I have to work in the morning?" "What a long day I had" etc etc. But, Matt, so excited to be on his second flight ever, ignores all of these polite suggestions, leaving Katie with only one option.... When the movie comes on, she points to the screen and says "Oh look, the movie is on!"
He turns away quickly and mumbles something about "Oh yeah, Freedom Writers. I've heard about that...." By the time he turns back, Katie is sound asleep on the window.
Fast Forward to Landing
Katie finally wakes up, feeling a little guilty for pulling that trick to get to sleep, so she begins polite conversation.
"How long is your lay-over?"
"Eight hours."
"Oh my, well you can't spend all that time in the airport, you've got to go see the city. You should take MARTA to Centennial Park, CNN Center, go see the aquarium, etc"
We chat like this the whole way down to the train (that goes to baggage claim). Katie gets on the train and Matt doesn't (Who would ever put a train in an airport? He says to this day). And we say goodbye through a train door. Which really should have been the end of the story......
But Then.....
Katie arrives in baggage claim and, surprise, Matt is there. (He beat a train)
And he says "Hey, funny seeing you here. Do you want to go get some coffee or something?"
"It's 6am, let's go get breakfast"
So, Katie drives us to Chik-Fil-A for chicken biscuits. :) And Matt orders an orange juice with his breakfast.... interesting he asked her out to coffee. Turns out, Matt doesn't like coffee, he just figured she wouldn't say no. (Who says no to coffee??)
So, they enjoy a great conversation over breakfast, and Katie drops him off at Centennial Park so she can finally get some rest. We exchanged phone numbers with a vague promise to visit when Katie was in California. And Matt took this wonderful photo:
Second Date
It turns out, Matt had just moved back to his mom's house for fire season when we decided to set up our second date. So, instead of a 3 hour drive (which seemed like way too much), he drove for 8 hours. The whole time he was driving, Katie was thinking that the date was going to be horrible. There was just too much preparation, too much anticipation, the date could never live up to it.Matt finally arrives at about 8pm, to find Katie looking not too much like that scraggly girl from the above picture, but more like normal Katie with no glasses and a touch of makeup. "Wow, you clean up nice" he says, as he thinks "Oh shit. What am I getting into?"
We arrive at Mekong River at about 8:30pm to find that the restaurant is closed a few minutes early and the family who owns it is sitting down to dinner. When they see Katie (a regular) try to open the door, they run to it, and re-open the restaurant just for the two of us. Dinner goes wonderfully and we both discover our first similarity - spicy food - and it's a good one since Art (one of the restaurant owners' kids) makes a killer hot sauce.
After dinner, we go to Pechanga Resort and Casino (where Katie was staying for work... poor her) for a little karaoke. Though neither of us sang that night, we did play interesting games to figure out who was buying the next round of drinks. And we closed this bar down also.
By this time, we both realized that there might be something going on here.... so we set up a tentative third date to go camping on Catalina island.
The Catalina Trip
Matt decided that it was time to "show Katie around southern California". So, he arranged a full out camping weekend. Now, keep in mind, this was the first time Katie had been camping. She'd done 'camping' at Relay, but you don't really sleep, and it's at a fairground. So, that's just one step up from camping in your backyard.We started out on Thursday, sleeping on his dad's boat, on the water. The boat was awesome, and sleeping on the water is really great. Thankfully, there's a shower at the dock, so Friday morning was our last chance at a real shower, and we took it!
Friday, we went to Magic Mountain and rode lots and lots of roller coasters. We also had the pleasure of spending $23 for two cheeseburgers... what a steal! While, we were eating our cheeseburgers, a duck came up to visit. So, Matt started feeding the duck and Katie said "Ew, I don't like ducks. They're gross."
Matt - "That's not a duck, it's a Canadian goose!"
Katie - "Oh, it looks like a duck. Stop feeding it! It could have rabies!"
HAHAHAHA. Katie claims to have been just kidding about the rabies, but she definitely really thought that thing was a duck. :) Matt is thoroughly amused at her city girl tendencies. The day ends with a horribly cheesy stunt show, and Katie kicking ASS and taking names at the race track.
Friday night, we're looking for a place to sleep, and Katie suggests we just get this camping thing started. So, we drive to Pyramid Lake and pick a campground. As we're pulling into the campsite, we notice a big sign with a HUGE rattlesnake on it, and a warning that there are rattlesnakes in this area.
Katie (novice camper and very novice rattlesnake enthusiast) asks "Are you sure this is a good place to stop??"
Matt assures her that this is California, they have to put those warnings everywhere to avoid being sued. Don't worry. They are probably no rattlesnakes around.
So, as we pull up to Ranger Roy to pay for the campsite, Matt gets out to talk to him, and Katie sees Ranger Roy walk up to Matt, holding a rattlesnake. A real rattlesnake.... And Matt thinks "Shit, I bet Katie just saw that." Um, you bet your sweet ass she did. So, we set up camp in the dark, all the while, Katie's trying to protect herself and her belongings from an inevitable rattlesnake invasion. But, alas, our first camping experience is spent without a rattlesnake attack. And we got to take sponge baths in the public bathroom! Hair = unwashed
Saturday morning, we head to San Pedro to catch the boat to Catalina. Then we walk around Avalon (the only city in Catalina), get some lunch, visit the botanical gardens, and the Wrigley memorial. Around 4:30 we head to the kayak place to rent snorkel gear, wetsuits (water is 62 degrees), and kayaks. We proceed to pack a ridiculous amount of stuff into two kayaks and head out into the sea for a 3.5 mile kayak to our campsite. On the way, a dolphin surfaces between our kayaks! AND we saw two seals! We also got to battle the wake from many boats. :) So, after what seems like a full day, we decide to pull into a camp and ask about where our campsite is.... Turns out, we overshot it by about a mile (25 mins). So, we hop back in the kayaks and make it to the nearest public beach (not our assigned camping spot) and set up shop. At 2am, Katie gets woken up to the sound of Matt leaving the tent and saying "Oh shit. I hope that's not what I think it is." We hear some loud rustling outside the tent and both start freaking out..... and then
Matt - "Katie, have you ever seen a buffalo?"
Katie - "What?!A buffalo?! On the beach?!"
Seriously... there was a buffalo grazing like 5 feet from our campsite... on the freakin beach! on an island! CRAZINESS. After being thorougly shocked, we go back to sleep and are awoken again at 9am by the sounds of little boys. Now, let's back track and say that we set up camp on the public beach, that is right next to a summer camp, and on the beach is this kind of trench / fort / shelter that seems to be the camp counselor make out spot. So, at 9am we hear boys yelling things like "We have to destroy it! It's the only way!" LOL.
So, Matt pokes his head out of the tent and yells "What's going on out here?!" just as the shanty house is in the midst of its demise. He gets 6 blank stares and scared looks, then one boy points to the others and says "They're destroying the fort!"
We both get a good laugh, and assure the boys that's it's no worry. We're just teasing them. :) So, they continue their destruction. When the boys leave, we take a little walk down to the water and find (written in the sand), the four words that sum up the minds of 8 year old boys (and probably most men). Written, in huge letters are "Poop Shit Fart Sex."
Matt and I beach it for the morning, cook some burritos for lunch, then pack up the kayaks and head out. On the way back to Avalon, we stop at a beach to go snorkeling. It was so pretty! Lots of fish and coral and plants! About 20 minutes into snorkeling, a charter boat, FULL of fishers show up, and we hear over the loadspeaker that they're about to chum the water.... WHAT?! So, we hightail it out, to avoid getting eaten by sharks. Damn those fishers!
So, that's the story of the best date ever, and the time we fell in love! Rollar coasters, camping, hiking, kayaking, snorkeling, and a few wild and crazy animals (you'll notice that theme in a few stories).
Long Distance Relationship
Three months after their first meetup, Katie gets done with her California project and is sent back to Atlanta. So starts the beginning of the phase of our relationship we call suck. Over the next five months, we go back and forth between California and Atlanta, seeing each other only about once a month or so. But, what's the old expression? Absence makes the heart grow fonder? Well, it certainly did. After a couple of travel snafus with Matt getting stuck at work and missing Katie the whole time she was in California in October, and missing Thanksgiving (the first time he was supposed to meet the Leland family), Matt finally gets off work on December 17.The Move to Atlanta
Matt moved to Atlanta in December and only got one day to settle before we packed up our belongings and headed to Florida for Christmas with the Lelands. It was a crazy week, but all in all, the family loved him. Which officially made him the best boyfriend Katie has ever had. And if the deal wasn't sealed at that point, it was afterwards. Now, we've both met each other's families. Both families approved. Off we go to really start this thing.After Christmas in Florida, we head back to Atlanta, meet up with Katie's friends and get settled into living together (a new experience for both of us). It was made especially interesting by the fact that Katie lived in a 700 sq ft loft with no rooms or doors (besides the bathroom). And even more interesting by the fact that Katie was officially working from home the whole time. Meaning, we spent just about 24 hours a day within 10 feet of each other. It took a little while to get into our routine, but we eventually did and things worked out even better than we thought.
We started having game nights and date nights and sit on the couch and watch movie nights. Everything was picture perfect. And we started talking about marriage and kids and what we both want out of life. Funny thing, we both have the same ideas about all of those things. This seems too good to be true. (Well, it's not)
The Proposal
Our one year anniversary was coming up and we'd been talking about marriage a lot, so Katie figured the one year anniversary was going to end with an engagement. So, Katie and her best friend, Jen, decided to go shopping for a new outfit, and accessories, and get their nails done. All on Friday, April 4 (day before the anniversary). After all of this, Katie realizes that it's getting into late afternoon and she should call Matt about what time she should get home. Matt says, oh come home around 7. So, Katie and Jen go out for a margarita. :)When Katie gets home, she's greeted by a sea of candles and a man cooking dinner.... What a sight! So, she quickly changes into her anniversary outfit (even if she has to wear it two nights in a row) and they have a great dinner.
After dinner, Matt holds Katie's hands and says "You're the best girl in the whole world. I love you so much. Katie Leland, do you want to grow old with me?"
To which she responded "YES! YES! YES!"
And then (here's the part with the wild and crazy animals) Katie's cat proceeds to puke up a hairball right under her chair. Classic.
Then we went to Intermezzo and celebrated with some champagne and dessert.
