About How We Met
Jason and Julie are geeks - the kind of higher-order geeks who create web sites. One day, while surfing through the list of recently updated sites at DFWblogs.com, Jason stumbled across Julie's weblog, a regularly updated journal of sorts (she was at the top of the list). She made an impression:
...I have no idea if there's any sort of etiquette for contacting people whose weblog you read. Say, for example, that I came across a weblog by someone who seems very interesting, intelligent, and passionate, who is my age, who happens to live nearby, and whom I would very much like to meet in person. Would it be acceptable to contact this person? Would that just be creepy? I really don't know.
In her referrer logs, Julie noticed several hits from a site she didn't recognize - Jason's own weblog. Amused and intrigued, she posted a remark of her own:
Jason: Nah. Not creepy at all. It actually happens more than you would think.
Julie (uncharacteristically) broke the e-mail ice, and in no time the two were e-mailing back and forth and getting acquainted. But their schedules conspired against them. Jason had to work late one night and asked Julie if she wanted to get together afterward since she worked a late shift herself; she had other plans. Julie then invited Jason to a birthday party for herself and Leia at the Magic Time Machine; Jason was busy attending the Mozilla launch party with his roommate.
But finally, on June 16, 2002, Jason and Julie went on their first date. Julie was running late; she was still brushing her teeth when Jason rang the doorbell and she didn't have time to put any makeup on. She wore a red shirtdress, and Jason later admitted he had checked out her legs as they walked out to his car. He bought her lunch, an expensive bar-b-q buffet at the Meyerson, and they enjoyed and afternoon of music played by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. After the concert, the pair was reluctant to part. So they drove across town and took in a matinee showing of "Undercover Brother"; it was, as Julie promised, "freakin' hilarious". After the movie, Jason took Julie to dinner at an upscale restaurant in Deep Ellum, a popular cultural district in Dallas; he knew she like Mexican food and had researched places to take her beforehand.
Four hours later, Jason and Julie were the last two diners in the restaurant. They had no trouble talking - she shared marching band war stories and he revealed his plans to move to Colorado, where he went to school - but they had to stop when restaurant employees began putting chairs up onto tables to close up for the night. Jason dropped Julie off at home, and they promised to get together again soon. Four days later, he picked her up after work and they went to a late movie. She didn't think it was a date - Jason said he just needed to get out of the apartment - and she didn't think he liked her all that much. But deep down he was trying not to like her too much; with a long-distance move looming, he didn't want to get attached.
Despite his best efforts, the two saw each other every day for the next nine days - cooking burritos together while dog-sitting, eating leftover cake at the lake, another symphony trip. When he left for a week in Colorado to play in a friend's wedding, she kissed him goodbye and spent the week wondering if he was thinking about her as much as she was thinking about him. He was. And it only took him two days back in Texas to decide she was worth staying in Texas for.
