We Met On A Bus

It was the summer of seventh grade, and my school courageously took 130 or so thirteen-year-olds on a trip to Washington, D.C.

Out of the four buses rented to chauffer us around the city, one of them broke down. I was on it.

Instead of getting a new one, they distributed us evenly among the other buses. I ended up on Steven’s. 

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him. I didn’t know it was him yet, but it was him. He stood up in his seat and chucked a pop bottle at the person sitting behind him. A laugh erupted on the bus. The boy popped his head up above the seat once more and gave a wide, friendly grin at his target and added to the laughter.

It was love at first sight. 

I told a friend sitting next to me that I thought the boy who threw the pop bottle was really cute. 

The friend, without me knowing, passed a handwritten note in a glass ginger ale bottle telling him that, if memory serves right, "I think you're cute. Will you hang out with me at Six Flags? Love, Jolee."

There were a few other notes passed back and forth in this bottle and soon I caught on and became excited to get to Six Flags (our much needed break from all the stuffy history tours). 

When we finally got there, however, Steven was a no show and we didn’t hang out. I figured that was the end of that.

Of course, it wasn’t.

After Six Flags, I sat on the bus waiting to go back to the hotel feeling a little bummed, but then there he was.

He plopped down in the seat next to me, and asked what would go down in the books as the best pick up line ever.

"So, what's your favorite cartoon?" 

Two days later on June 8, 1999, Steven asked me if I would be his girlfriend.

Ten years later, he asked me to marry him.

And I did.

 www.joleedonnelly.com

When You Know...You Know

Our story can be told one of two ways. The sweet and condensed version is that we met through mutual friends and the rest is history. Short and simple. But who likes short and simple?!

The extended (and much more interesting) version includes Eeyore in a hookah lounge, Facebook-stalking, and a grand scheme. It was late October 2009, and I headed downtown to have a couple drinks with a group of friends after a comedy show. In this group of friends was Danny's best friend who was dating one of my great friends, and we all ended up at a hookah lounge together. Our group grabbed a table outside and sat back to chat and enjoy a couple drinks.


Being that it was late October, apparently people were practicing for Halloween the next weekend…because in walked a guy in an Eeyore costume with a cute little pink-bowed tail.
The Eeyore-clad homeboy stood right in front of our table with that tail swingin’ just within distance of me. And just like Eeyore wants to be noticed, I was trying to get Danny to notice me, and in a moment of full (im)maturity I yanked on Eeyore’s tail.

Sticking It Out Through Good Times and Bad

One question we have been asked which I find to be a little complicated to answer is “How did we meet?”  Well it goes a little something like this.  We went to school together.  The End. 

No really we did go to school together.  Even though we lived near each other we went to different middle schools but we went to the same Jr. High School.  It was there we had our first encounter, one we wouldn’t even realize till after we were together and looking at old pictures she had from school that she took and found one of me.  It just so happened I was walking across the field at school one day and someone called my name I turned to look and “snap” my picture was taken; frozen in time, never to see that picture again, until approximately 21 years later. 

That First Kiss

He was playing the guitar at the church with the Christian Youth Group. He was 16 and I think I don’t have to clarify that at that point he was really not interested in the 9 year old girl that I was. He looked like an angel to me, with his long blond hair (When I look at some old pictures now, he looked more like the “Hanson” brothers…). I didn't know his name or who he was, but I knew he felt like someone special to me.

Years passed by, I was 17, he was 24. I was in the Christian Youth Group too. He wasn't anymore, because he was now working a few hours away. I hung out with his friends and brothers, they were all talking about him, but I didn't know who they were talking about, until I saw some pictures and made the link (not with the Hanson, but with the angel).

And then, one day he stopped by to say hello at our local room. His name was Matthieu. I fell in love.

At one of my best friend’s birthday garden party, sitting at the table, I asked him if I could extend my legs and thus put them on his (can you imagine how it feels like for a teenage girl? My legs were touching his legs!! I still can remember those insignificant moments because they were, at that time, very decisive). At the end of the party, he drove me back home. I was so proud leaving the party with him!

During the summer, we met a few times at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Switzerland, not far from our home towns. One night, he managed to get free tickets for a concert and my phone number. He wanted to ask me to go with him. I unfortunately didn't hear my phone and I missed it. I was devastated on the next day, devastated like if I was never going to have another possibility to spend time with him (but, he now had my number!!).

After our meetings with the group, we used to have a drink in a local pub or in the city. And sometimes Mat joined us a little bit later. Suddenly, he was always coming with us. I was so happy. We talked and laughed together a lot. Some people were already joking that he was only coming because of me. They were saying: “Let’s call your pilot to tell him we’re going out tonight” Blush!!

He had a car and he was often driving me back home. Once, he brought me back a little late, maybe 30 minutes later than my parents were expecting me. My mother was very angry at us. I was so ashamed. I thought he would never talk to me again. Fortunately, that didn't happen. He even called me and asked if I'd like to do some ice skating. “Oh yes yes yes yes yes yes!!!!!!!”

We went ice skating together on the 12^th of December, our first date. We skated around the rink about an hour. At the end, he took me in his arms and… that’s it. He just took me in his arms (why didn't he kiss me?!?!). While walking away of the rink, I put my ice skates in the opposite hand of him, just in case he would take my hand (but he didn't). On Monday, at school, I just wanted to scream my love out and tell everybody what happened, but I couldn't, because I was sitting just next his littlest brother and I didn’t know if he knew or suspected something.

The next weekend, on the 19^th of December 2004, he invited me for a walk through the Christmas Market of Montreux. This was our second date. There, he took my hand.

 There were so many people at the market. When we met a couple of friends of him and the boys were getting some drinks for us, the girl asked me how long we were together and I answered: “Oh, but we are not together!” When Mat came back at the table with some warm tea, he took my hands and played with them. She must have been very confused!! And I was in pure happiness.

At the end of that Christmas-Market-date, he kissed me. WooHoo!!! HE KISSED ME!!!!!! I was totally out of my body, high in the sky, flying with butterflies!! Intense moment of perfection!

This place, just under the stairs going to the station, has been very important for us each year since then. We use to go there every year on the 19^th of December and we kiss again. 7 years later, on the 19^th of December 2011, he asked me to be his wife, by the lake, a few meters from where we first kissed. We’re going to marry on the 22^nd of June 2013.

He’s my angel. He’s why my life is beautiful, the one that cries when I cry and laughs when I laugh. He’s the one I’m going to marry.

PS: He cut his hair…

My wedding preparation blog: http://thecupcakewedding.wordpress.com/