How we met from a female's point of view...

One balmy Sunday summer's evening I drove all the way out to Northridge to spend the last few hours of the sabbath with some friends I had recently made, one in particular had caught my eye with his smooth moves on the dance floor and general good humored nature... yes Glen was pretty adorable. Glen and I were sitting on his couch talking, I wanted to talk and get to know him better and I was in full throttle flirt mode, when it all came to a screeching halt... seriously I heard the typical TV sound effect of the DJ scratching the vinyl, when Glen confessed to me that he wanted me to set him up with my childhood friend Melody... what the EFF! I tried to not let my desire for Glen cloud my intentions when I told him quite honestly how it was a BAD idea because Melody was already dating two other guys fairly seriously and there are only so many men even Melody could juggle. Of course Glen didn't listen to me and it didn't go well... Melody is now Married to one of the other two guys... the guy who was smart enough to put a reservation ring on her maritally ambitious finger. While Glen and I were having this memorable conversation I very tall blond guy came into the apartment via climbing over the balcony rail as gracefully as he could muster... though I am pretty sure he hurt himself on the way over the rail. And thussly Tanner climbed into my life. We all sat around talking... Tanner was pretty cute and funny and strangely reminded me of my closest childhood friend Peter Barth... both tall, blond, and brawny.

We are now waist deep into summer and my dear friend and visiting teaching companion Liz Demeter is celebrating her birthday at Point Dume beach in or near Malibu, CA. We had a nice day at the beach talking, eating... sun burning... completely unaware that one of Liz's friend has been desperately trying to reach one of the party goers to find out where we were settled on the beach. Poor fellow didn't reach us till we were already heading home to clean up for the barbecue that was to follow later on in the evening at Mel's house. On the way home Liz's friend who had been kind of dating Tanner told me a bit about him... please keep in mind I had pretty much forgotten about the tall blond brawny man I had met at Glen's... and if I didn't forget his face I certainly forgot his name... it was nothing personal I just have the memory of a small bar of soap... so when this girl, let's call her, Shelly told me about this guy who had been searching for us on the beach I didn't make the connection. Later on that evening we all met at Mel's for BBQ and huge cupcakes ( Mel works at a bakery.) I then saw Tanner again the tall, blond, brawny, man from a few weeks before. I remember how amiable he had been and since I am the friendly person I am I decided to make an honest effort at a new friendship with this jovial fellow. We talked for a while and dare I say we flirted a bit. When this older guy came up and sat down next to me he joined in our conversation and soon he had dominated the conversation by asking me what I did and then brought up Project Runway, and since I am such a fashion crazy girl of course my attention was focused on this guy who seemed to care about fashion... stupid stupid stupid... first off Tanner was much better dressed than, let's call him, Pacey. But never the less I started talking more to Pacey. We finished up the party at Mel's and headed to Korea town for Karaoke! We all sang the night away and I was impressed by Tanner's Karaoke skills... it's true chicks DO dig skills. I continued to flirt with both Tanner and Pacey... I was having a GOOD time. I sang a duet with Pacey which ended up being a bit more weird than cute and at the end of the evening we all headed out to our cars. I was standing on the side walk just waiting for Pacey to ask me for my number, which I totally saw coming... and he did. What I didn't know was Tanner was right behind me apparently about to ask me for my number when once again Pacey stepped in and stole his thunder. So I said goodnight to both guys and went home... Pacey was a jerk wad... JERK WAD. Stupid stupid stupid. Pacey and my relationship ended about 2 weeks before Halloween so when I heard there was a singles costume dance down in the area that Pacey lived I thought I would dress up in my cute, sexy, yet modest nurse "GOODBODY" costume and go down there and show Pacey just what he was missin'! Well, Pacey didn't show but the evening wasn't a total waist because I saw Pacey's room mate there and he saw how cute I looked so I figured he would say something of the sort to Pacey so it was nearly as good PLUS I got to see Tanner again! He looked soo cute, he was dressed as a lumberjack with a thick layer of testosterone. So we danced and flirted and had a great time... up until Tanner picked me up and someone took a picture which was absolutely NOT flattering on my thighs and butt... so mortifying! Not to mention when I viewed the picture it automatically zoomed in so not only did you see my thighs and butt but also my crotch! ... and Tanner was looking over my shoulder to see the picture... he swears he didn't see anything but I think he was just being a gentleman. I could have died right then and there... A few days later, it might have even been the next day, I went to this guys Halloween party, again, in Santa Monica. There I saw Tanner and I was so happy because aside from my girl friend who came with me I didn't really know any body... there was some guy who apparently lived there who was just walking around in a Speedo... and it was a little... different for me... fun but different. Plus I wanted someone to Dance with. So when I saw Tanner there I was really excited. Again we danced and flirted and had a great time together... but then Tanner told me he was probably going to leave! NOOO! I knew that if he left my fun would leave with him. He said he was going to go to a friends house and watch a movie so I tried to hint to him that I might like to spend more time with him... maybe I could come along if his friends didn't mind?? Well apparently THAT was too subtle because Tanner left... without another word... ouch baby very ouch.

My birthday is two day's after Halloween and at about 11: 30 pm or so the day before my birthday I was sending face book messages back and forth with Tanner... apparently he did still have some interest in me despite the blow off at the party because at exactly midnight on my birthday he called me singing happy birthday... no "Hi Sarah, it's Tanner," he just went right into singing... it was really cute... and the rest is pretty much history because we spent so much time together that neither of us were really sure when we became officially together so we count my birthday as our first day of our life together... with maybe a minor hiccup along the way.