An Interesting "Development"

If you've already read the story of how we met, then you know that Jay actually doesn't recall our first encounter.

This morning, I received an e-mail from Katie Baxter, the lovely wife of our mutual friend Justin. The subject line was "Picture Proof!" and in the message, Katie let me know she had recently found a photograph that was taken on the day of the "forgettable" event. I opened the attachement to find this hilarious photo:



I appear to be engrossed in another conversation and Jay appears to be wondering why on earth Katie would be taking his picture while he's stuffing is face with cake and sitting next to a surprisingly nice smelling hippie.

I love it!

Thanks Katie - you are absolutely awesome!!!

Getting to Know the Bride & Groom

The Bride
Name: Kerrie Fassett
Hometown: Ashtabula, Ohio
Parents: Richard & Lois Fassett
Siblings: Suzanne Downes
Education: Ashtabula High School, University of Evansville
Occupation: Sales Support
Favorite Things: Jay's cheesecake, singing along with any given crooner, social networking (Twitter, Facebook, etc.), John Cusack movies and Guinness

The Groom
Name: John Olzak but most people call him Jay
Hometown: Perrysburg, Ohio
Parents: Nancy & the late Donald Olzak
Siblings: Brendon Olzak
Education: Perrysburg High School, Owens Community College
Occupation: Chef
Favorite Things: His LP collection, composing electronic music, a nice Scotch, creating culinary masterpieces and blogging about them

I Could Write the Preface of How We Met So the World Would Never Forget

Actually, no I couldn't. I always feel a bit silly when people ask how we met. It's not really that great of a story. Not that it's a bad story. It just lacks the drama or humor that other stories seem to have. Take my Grandparents on my Mother's side. They lived in an apartment building with a shared bathroom and they met when Grandpa walked in on Grandma without knocking. If you ask me, that's straight out of a How I Met Your Mother script.

So, yeah, neither of us walked in on the other in any compromising positions. And neither of us crossed a crowded room to get to the other. Nobody did anything incredibly heroic or stupid. I guess you could say we met through a mutual friend: Justin Baxter.

Justin became friends with Jay when they were both "Baristas" at Cosmo's and he became friends with me while he was the Youth Leader at St. Mark's. We don't really know why he never chose to introduce us. Maybe it was the Seinfeld "World's Colliding" scenario. Or maybe he was afraid one of us was just way too cool and the other was simply much too sweet (I'll let you all decide who was who). Regardless of why not, it took a surprise birthday party thrown by Justin's wife, Katie, to finally place Jay and I in the same room at the same time.

And I'd love to say things just took off from there, but that's not entirely the truth. Because, you see, Jay doesn't even remember meeting me that day.

He...was tired.

Yep. The 1-2 hours of conversation we shared on the front porch over pot luck findings served on zoo pals plates somehow never made it into his memory bank for that day beacause...he was tired.

I don't fault him. We've been a couple for almost 5 years now and I know that he can barely even remember his own name when he's tired. But, it does hurt just a teensy bit to know that I walked away from that day kicking myself for being too shy to suggest we exchange numbers and he just...walked away.

But after stumbling upon his blog one day, I mustered up the courage to send him an e-mail. And, yes, things finally just took off from there. We exchanged e-mails, a cheesecake recipe (oh yes - I have the cheesecake recipe!), phone numbers, and eventually met up on a brisk October evening (with a Kristy & Tom buffer) at Cohen & Cooke. We shared some wine, and some cheese, and some laughs...and we've been together ever since.

So, there's our story. No real glitz or glamour, but it is ours..and I absolutely love it!