A Year Ago To Now

A year ago today, well, technically a year ago on Friday (August 3), Spiros and I met for the first time. We were introduced in the corridor between our offices by the woman I was working for. He later told me that nobody ever introduces new people like that, so I have a feeling she already thought we might hit it off.

A few days later, he invited me to lunch. One thing you should know about my experience with German professional culture is that people are always making lunch plans. This was weird for me, a person accustomed to shoveling food into her mouth in front of a computer screen scanning People.com.

To be perfectly honest, lunch time was actually the worst part of the entire experience in Berlin. While I had a rotation of people with whom I'd occasionally make plans, more often than not I decided to have lunch whenever the moment felt right. And then I would sit alone, enjoying my elementary cafeteria style lasagna, while everyone else stretched out awkward small talk in German.

Good times. I've never felt so alone.

Anyway. This really has nothing to do with the story of Spiros and I meeting except to say that the few times we went to lunch together were my favorite. We had good chemistry, and I could tell we would have fun together away from the glare of the office. While part of me regrets that we didn't just start dating then (permanent lunch buddy!), we both know it was for the best that it played out like it did.

We laugh a lot about our first few dates together and how little we knew about the other person. He was so nervous, and I was so wise, saying things about "needing to be realistic about what could happen in the future since I was leaving." Ha, like the only time I've had my feet firmly planted on the ground since.

Our relationship's geographically transient nature has been a fun way to get to know each other. Our two-week trips together in Colorado and then later in Austin/California created little vortexes for us to bond, tell random stories, and make memories. They were beautiful. Same with our time in Greee this summer.

But living together, that's when you get a real idea of how someone is. Like he uses mechanical pencils. The only other person in the world I know who uses mechanical pencils is my dad. Not that there's anything wrong with mechanical pencils, they just stopped existing in my mind once I finished taking scantron tests.

And would you guess that Spiros has a million tupper-ware storage containers? Like not even the ones from the grocery store, nice ones with special snap lids. Granted I have remarkably few personal possessions to my name for a 27-year-old, but seriously, I never would have pegged him as a tupper-ware guy.

Oh, and you'll never guess how messy he is with his clothes. Leaves 'em everywhere. Oh wait, that's both of us. We maybe should work on the tidiness.

It has been fun, these past two months. And year, for that matter. Maybe the best year ever. Even if I did have to suffer a few months of awkward lunches to get to this point, it's been worth it.