A Series of Serendipitous Events

When we were engaged, my husband and I killed time on the internet and on Netflix, as so many young people are wont to do. We wasted time on iwastesomuchtime, we looked at cats on icanhazcheezburger, and most importantly, my husband introduced me to How I Met Your Mother.

Important, you ask? Well, yes. How do two people like my husband and I manage to come together? How do any two people manage to come together at all? So, as I watched Ted tell his five-year-long story to his kids, it made me think of how I will tell my future kids how I met their father. After all, the odds of a conservative country boy from Nephi, Utah meeting a moderate-liberal city girl from the (comparative) city of Salt Lake at a liberal arts college are pretty slim; however the chances of the said two people falling in love are even more slim. And that's to say nothing of the fact that when we first met, he had a girlfriend and I had a boyfriend. When he first really SAW me, however, his girlfriend was an ex; my boyfriend was still on the scene.  And, what can I say, I kindled his interest. And, though I denied it vehemently, he kindled mine.

So my interest was kindled. But I was not easy to win over.

In fact, I was kind of a pill to him when he first started paying attention to me. I was in what I thought a permanent relationship, and what started off as friendly interest between the two of us became attraction. I didn't want to have to deal with the guilt of being attracted to one man while I was dating another one. 

So, naturally, my knee-jerk reaction was flat-out contempt with, in moments of weakness, sincere and easy conversation. Apparently, I was the only one that never figured on the two of us getting together. But then, ardent Sherlock Holmes obsession notwithstanding, I've never been good at deducing where my future will take me where relationships are concerned. 

But, obviously, his persistence paid off. We started dating in the summer of 2011; in August 2011 he left to serve an LDS mission in McAllen, Texas. He was sent home in October on account of a lung infection, and by November 2011, we were engaged. After a long (for both of us) engagement, we got married in the Salt Lake Temple on St. Patrick's Day 2012. The next two months have been perfect due to their imperfections: He gets cranky as a bear, and I get emotional as only women can (PMDD runs in the family, and it tends to turn me into a complete and sobbing train wreck at the slightest provocation). He puts up with my emotional roller-coaster ride of a brain, and in return, I make him sandwiches. He eats my sub-par cooking, and I edit his papers (which are by no means sub-par, but it's one of the boons and curses of being married to an English major). We argue about menial things for argument's sake--the old favorite being whether or not the RDJ Sherlock movies are actually true to the spirit of Sherlock--I'll let you guess what side I take. 

It isn't easy being married young (one gets a fair amount of criticism, especially at a Liberal Arts college) but we're making it work. And, unsurprisingly, we're outrageously happy. The spats of yesterday become the anecdotes of today (I do a fantastic impression of myself having an emotional breakdown). We really are lucky people, to have found each other. 

& That's Elementary.