Marianne and Eric first met at USC in 1981, where they were in the same medical school class. Eric loved Marianne from the start, saying to his best friend: “If that girl was not married, I’d marry her.”

They parted after medical school, but kept in touch, Eric always sending Marianne cards from around the world on her birthday, which is Valentine’s Day.

Trauma and drama occurred.

In 2005, they reconnected. Marianne asked Eric if he wanted to start dating again., 24 years after they first met. This began their “honeymoon period,” visiting each other regularly from San Diego and San Francisco.

After seeing each other for 2 years, Eric moved to San Diego, to live with Marianne and her two teenage children. This began their “breaking rocks” period. It seemed no matter how hard they tried to spend time together, children intervened. Adolescents being what they are, life was pretty crazy most of the time.

In 2011 Eric moved back to SF alone! After 2 years apart Marianne retired from her job as an OB-GYN for Kaiser and joined him in SF. They now live happily in the middle of San Francisco on the edge of a forest- with no kids!

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Johanna went to Fresno State and I went to Stanford University. In summer 2007 she coordinated a camping trip for Bay Area members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, which are brother and sister organizations. A lot of people went and we were basically roughing it out by a lake, playing games like Taboo and mind-twisters (like Green Glass Door….Google it, it’s completely mind-numbing if you’re trying to figure it out). I thought Johanna was cute but possibly out of my league and my age range. She had joined her sorority in Fall 2003 and I had in Spring 2006. Join dates can become a little cliquish and a lot of the campers were from Fall 2003 so they were very proud about that. That and Johanna had graduated college in 2005. I was only entering my junior year. Thus, I felt super young.

One night everyone was drinking and Johanna and I started talking. I get really talkative when I’m drunk and basically told her my life story. She took it all in and then I eventually passed out. Obviously the next day I was very embarassed. The trip ended and we went on our separate ways but continued to talk from time to time over gchat. I could tell she was at least partially interested in me so I asked her on a date.

She gave a weird response, saying she didn’t think it was a good idea, but she still seemed interested. I figured my ‘love-interest’ radar was off and I backed off. We stayed in touch but both entered and exited other relationships over the next few years.

As I would learn later, Johanna was actually interested in me but hesitant because of my age. I like to joke and tell people she jumped on the chance as soon as I graduated, but of course she remembers it differently.

Fast forward two years. I’ve graduated. Summer 2009. I’m back in the Bay Area for an event. Johanna and I argue over who actually asked who out. We agree to meet up to ‘catch up.’ We talk a little over the phone leading up to the day and soon it feels more and more like this will be a date. I nervously consult my best friend for advice. I plan to a day at a museum in SF, but the morning of I find out they are (surprised!) closed on Sundays. I scramble for a new plan and end up changing it to the zoo. I feared Johanna would be annoyed with the last minute change, but she was totally cool about it.

She picked me up from the Bart station (I was staying on Stanford’s campus) and we had a really good time. There was an awkward moment when she asked if I wanted to drive and I said no. Despite not wanting to, I confessed I had yet to get my license, instead of letting her think I was just rude.

The day went off without a hitch, and we’ve been together ever since. We just celebrated our first wedding anniversary. And yes, I do drive!

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From Julia’s perspective…

It was early afternoon, Sunday October 31st 2010 (Halloween!).

I had started my day like I normally do on Sunday – cleaning, laundry, errands, preparing for the upcoming workweek. My friend Jenni called me at around 12:30pm and asked if I would PLEASE go grab one drink with her (she desperately wanted to get away from her boyfriend’s parents who had been in town for a week).

I reluctantly said I would go (for one drink!) but told her I needed to be back home in an hour. We ended up walking down to a restaurant/bar in the marina called City Tavern. The day was gorgeous and the Giants were in Game 6 of the World Series. As we approached the restaurant, we saw an open table outside and quickly sat down. Next to our table, we noticed a group of four guys drinking beers and watching the game.

Side note: during this time, I had finally gotten to a point in my life where I was no longer actively looking to date anyone. I had pretty much given up on finding someone in San Francisco (especially in the Marina). I had put myself out there for a year, accepting several offers to be set up on blind dates and bar hopping in the marina in the hopes of finding someone interesting.

About 5 minutes after we sat down at our table, the boys next to us asked if we wanted to push our tables together so we could have a better view of the game that was playing on the monitors inside the restaurant. It was then that I noticed the cute boy sitting across from me and I immediately felt a connection. It was electric.

Long story short, we never even watched a minute of the game. Instead, the 6 of us partook in the longest game of Never Have I Ever – ever. After 6 hours, and SEVERAL margaritas, we knew everything about each other. Nothing was off limits – past relationships, embarrassing moments, regrets etc. We put it all on the table because we didn’t know the guys and it just felt natural!

And that boy across the table? His name is Alex and there was just something about him I instantly loved. I just KNEW this was something special and I had to get to know him. At one point during the game, I reached across the table to hold his hand (I have no idea why!) and we ended up holding hands across the table for a full minute without speaking a word about it. The spark between us was palpable. Later, Jenni announced that the two of us need to date and that Alex needed to ask me out immediately. He did and the rest is history! I honestly had found my soulmate.

Alex proposed to me on June 11th last year and we are getting married on May 26th. I am SO excited to spend the rest of my life with him!

Final side note: Alex later told me that as he and his friends saw me and Jenni walking towards the table that day, they quietly said to each other “please have those girls sit next to us”…and then after my impromptu hand grab, Alex leaned over to one of his buddies and said “This girl is off limits. But you can be the best man at our wedding”.

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The true (and short) story of how a nice polite Minnesota gal fell for a foulmouthed crazy Californian, wherein hilarious miscommunication of epic proportions often occurred. The first time I met Krysta was brief and over 7 years ago – we both had other partners and were invited to a dinner party by a close mutual friend. I was intrigued, she was so cute with her little sweater vest and polite nerdiness and even remember talking about how cute she was with my Ex.

Fast forward a couple years, both Krysta and I were going through horrific break-ups within a few months of each. Right around that time, I ran into her on BART during the lead up to California voting on Prop 8 (hiss) and she was wearing a “Gay Rights for All” shirt and just the saddest puppy dog face you’ve ever seen. She didn’t recognize me; I reintroduced myself and asked what she was doing, “I’m headed to West Oakland to talk to people about gay marriage”. Whoa. I’ll admit it – the combination of bada$$ activism and sad face just did me in. Fast forward another few months, we’re at a friends Valentines Day Birthday party and I finally had her cornered, ahem, I mean, had a chance to really talk to her. Well, that brunch rolled into a late night dance party, a ridiculous amount of flirting and the phone number exchange.

After 3-4 failed dates (hilarious miscommunication is really “our” thing), we finally ended up at the Lexington, basically closed the bar out and from then on spent a ridiculous amount of time together, taking road trips, texting and flirting shamelessly. But the plot thickens! Or how delusional a couple of gals be! Being fresh out of complicated and painful relationships, we were both convinced that we were just not ready to jump into another relationship and therefore we would just be friends. With benefits. So we did this for over a year and a half, to where our friends would even refer to the other as our “girlfriend”, at which we’d fluff up, indignant and proclaim that we were just “friends”. Well, after a couple years of pretending, a handful of times of trying to break it off, we finally got the message and admitted we were totally in love with each other. It’s been 4 years now and this past December I proposed to Krysta – I like to say that I make sure we have plenty of adventure and Krysta makes sure we stay out of jail. She’s my best friend, hilarious, passionate about social justice and a hundred times nicer than me – I mean, how lucky can a gal be?!

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From Yana’s perspective on how we met

We originally met in High School in 1999, I was dating his hockey team mate Paul, and didn’t pay much attention to him.
After high school we both lost touch until 13 years later when my brother was looking for a wedding videographer for his wedding and Yaro was suggested to him by his already hired photographer. At their gig interview it was revealed that we all went to the same highschool and that he was Jewish and single. My brother Ben, immediately told him to add me on Facebook. We of course recognized each other in the photos and he asked me to meet him the following day. We have been dating ever since (a little over a year) and are still considering calling Paul (high school ex) to tell him the good news .

PS. We are more fun than a Greek Festival.

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I was new to Palo Alto and new to my job as Property Manager in a community where Bruce had just moved two months prior – as a newly divorced father of two. He came to the “Meet the Manager” party to complain! Turns out I couldn’t take care of his complaint, but we became fast friends. Neither of us was interested in a relationship, but it was nice having someone to talk to as we established new lives. I was working and going to school full-time and he was busy getting custody of his two children and a messy divorce. Neither of us wanted a relationship! A few months after hanging out, he was helping me hang a picture in my apartment and kissed the back of my neck. Well….That was it! My friend was now more than a friend! He soon had to move out. I couldn’t sleep with a resident of a community I managed and he needed a bigger place for his kids. That was 13 years ago! The kids are grown and one just made us grand parents. We’re actually not married. We like to say “we’re better than married”. Bruce isn’t my “partner” he’s my “heart-ner”.

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OkCupid to iPhone Facetime. Oh, you mean in person?

I think exploring how tragic online dating can be is funny enough. Never mind the excitement around meeting someone you really have a lot in common with amongst the vast wave of people on the interwebs. Filtering out and screening was really important to me because I didn’t have a lot of time and was tired of horrible, uninteresting dates.

I think I wrote her something lame like “hi”.

She said hi back. I asked her to facetime.

Screen one, does she have an iPhone? Yes.

I think it was 9 or 10 at night. I was still in the office. We talked about being awkward, being data geeks, and working in tech.

I really wasn’t sure if she like me or not. First date was excellent. Two dates later I asked her to go to the Virgin Islands with me on a boat I had just purchased. She said yes.

The internal narrative of what is going on my, her head via improv would be amazing to watch.

Travis

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In 1992, Nickola had just immigrated here from Bulgaria and was working for a limousine company. I, Tracy, a California native was living in a one bedroom apartment working at law firm. A mutual friend to both of us, Vili, who just happens to be Bulgarian as well, was in charge of the entertainment at a fashion show one night and she asked a group of us to be her Karaoke singers for the evening. So we could all partake in much needed alcohol that evening, she hired Nickola to drive us all in the limousine.

After the fashion show, we all headed to our favorite Karaoke show at bar in San Mateo. While Nickola was sitting at the bar drinking water talking to the owner, I came up and ordered my usual glass of Remy. For the first time that evening I notice the sparkle in Nickola’s eyes. The owner, Lubo, who was getting married in a month, told us that since we were both invited to his wedding that we should go together. Not sure what so say next, we both said “yeah, sure, whatever.” That night on the way home I sat in the front of the limosine with Nick while everyone else sat in back. (There may have been small talk but in all honesty I have no recollection as to what was said.) When he dropped me off at home I was not the last person in the car so our night ended with a “see ya.” Later, it turned out that I had to work and never made it to the wedding. About a week after the wedding Nickola called me and asked me out on our first date. He said he waited until his parents left to go back to Bulgaria because at the time his brother was dating someone they did not approve of and he did not want them to scare me off. For our first date we went to the movies and saw Wayne’s World. (Dana Carvey will always have a special place in our hearts.)

We got married on January 1, 1993 and have two sons. One who already graduated from Carlmont High School and another one who will graduate in the spring. (Which just happens to be the same high school where Dana Carvey graduated.)

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My friend Lee lived across the street. He had a basketball goal. I would routinely use it. In our freshmen year of high school, a family that included 5 girls moved in down the street. As they would pass by, I would always launch a 3 pointer — since after all, basketball prowess is the best way to impress a girl. Lee wound up working with one of them at the local Burger King, Sheryl who was our age, and asked her to our Homecoming Dance. On the Friday before the dance, Lee brought Sheryl to our bond fire where I met her for the first time. She said I had nice shoes. That was all it took. I asked Lee if I could ask Sheryl out the next week. He said OK. Sheryl and I dated for 6 years through high school and college and have been married almost 32 years. I would do it all over again. We are looking forward to the performance on Valentine’s Day.

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HER story:

Mohan was applying to the same residency program where I was a second year resident. I was randomly assigned to interview him for the position. He ended up getting the job and we soon found ourselves working together. Mohan would always stay late and volunteer to do more. At first I thought he was just eager to learn. But then I started noticing that he would linger late on the nights I was on call. He would wait for my shift to end, then walk me to my car. I would catch him stealing a glance at me during lecture instead of paying attention. He continued to call me after hours, not to discuss patient care, but to just ask how I was doing. Eventually he offered to teach me how to salsa dance. A few salsa turns and dips later, the handsome intern from Japan won my heart.

HIS story:

Since the start of residency, it was obvious that Sabrina had her eye on me. She would coincidentally bump into me in unlikely places, cook Aloo Paratha with extra masala, ring my cheeseburger bicycle bell, and graffiti my patient rosters with Happy Faces =) I found myself drawn into a game of Cat & Mouse. As Sabrina’s junior resident, I realized that she could locate me in any part of the hospital, day or night!

Honestly… Sabrina’s beautiful smile, animated personality, and playfulness were overwhelmingly irresistible. I felt lucky and didn’t put up too much resistance =)

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