Happy Meet-a-versary

Three years ago today, Steve and I met in Dunino, Scotland at our friend Sue Anne's house.  We call it the meet-a-versary and we celebrate it by letting Steve eat the last little bit of ice cream in the freezer and by buying The Bairn a $0.50 puppy at the thrift store.

On the day Steve and I met, I was traveling in Scotland with two friends and we had just come from the very beautiful Ullapool in the northwest.

Beautiful Ullapool

My friends and Sue Anne and I all attended graduate school at the same place at the same time.  When I asked if we had any particular plans in Dunino, the friend who knew Sue Anne best instructed me that whenever you hang out with Sue Anne, you just wait for the awesome that follows, because Sue Anne is always doing or finding or creating something interesting that you will love.

So true. 

This is me and Sue Anne's dog, Meta, a couple of days after I met Steve.

We arrived at Sue Anne's house and as she greeted us in the kitchen, she mentioned that her friend Steve was visiting.  We went in and met him.  I thought he was 40-years-old (he was not quite 31) and I wondered why he was wearing a shirt large enough for him and an entire basketball team to wear at the same time (it is a fortunate thing that he consulted his friend Eva before dressing for our first date).

He thought that I was 25-years-old (I was 31 but no one ever recognizes my advanced age and wisdom) and he thought my scrubby pony tails were cute.  

The five of us went for fish and chips in Anstruther, which remains my favorite fried fish spot.  We sat on the seawall and shared mushy peas.

Alice took this picture of us at that very same seawall in Anstruther when she visited us in 2010.  It is not a particularly smashing photo of us.  Pretend that my face doesn't look like that normally.

Here we are earlier in the day.  I look a bit better with my hair down and a sweater on.  That soothes my vanity a bit.

Early on in the night, we stopped at an ATM and Steve and I were left alone in the car.  He was driving and I was sitting in the backseat.  He turned around to talk to me, and I remember thinking, I do not know how to talk to grown up men with beards.  By the end of the night, though, Steve and I were very happily drinking Italian hot chocolate and discussing the slow food movement.

And then the next day he gave me a book and told me to just take it with me to Romania*, because he fancied me but he didn't think he'd ever see me again.

Ha ha.  Joke 's on him.  The book he sent to Romania is on our bookshelf and he's in the kitchen washing my dishes three years later.


But I don't think that either of us expected that after hanging out with Sue Anne that day, the awesome that would follow would be the sweetest little child to ever walk roll the wide green world.

He can sit up but he hasn't realized it yet.

Every post is really just an excuse to show my mom pictures of The Bairn's sweet face.

*I was actually on my way to Greece next but Steve did tell me to take it to Romania, where I was going later.