Jennifer and John
Above: Our first photo together, taken on July 3, 2005. At left and right: Our dating days at Rutgers.
How We Met
By Jenn n April 21, 2005, my college friend Rob invited me over to his house, as he was having about 15 of our mutual friends over to hang out. Upon arriving, a few of us ordered Chinese food and began to eat in the dining room of 22 Jones Avenue in New Brunswick. All of a sudden, a new face walked in. (I knew everyone who was there from college – we all sang together in Kirkpatrick Choir. But it was my freshman year and, apparently, I hadn’t met everyone in our circle of friends.) I asked this new guy who he was since I had never seen him before. His name was John, and he knew everyone there since he was a member of the Rutgers University Glee Club and very often the Glee Club and Kirkpatrick Choir would get together, both musically and socially. The introductions were pretty much the only words we spoke to each other before someone suggested we all play Trivial Pursuit. John and I weren’t on the same team, so we didn’t really interact. At the end of the night, we said a brief good-bye. When I got back to my dorm, I told my roommate that I’d met a guy I was going to be in a relationship with, after which she said, “Yeah, right. You barely talked.” I said I knew, but something inside me knew I was right. It seemed ridiculous, but it was how I felt.
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The next day, I asked our friends about John. Everyone said he was a great guy, so I looked him up on the then relatively new Facebook and couldn’t find him. I figured he just didn’t have a profile – not everyone did back then! The following day, John found me on Facebook – when looking him up, I spelled his last name with an S instead of a C. I was excited – I had registered in his mind as well! The next night, my roommate wanted to go to a random house party in New Brunswick. I didn’t want to go, but wanted to make sure she was safe, so I offered to drive her. After getting in the car, I asked for the address of the party. “84 Central Avenue,” she said. It sounded so familiar. Then a lightbulb went off. I ran back to my dorm room and checked his Facebook profile – sure enough, 84 Central Avenue was John’s address! I took his phone number from his page and sent him a text message saying who I was, that I was going to a party at his house that night, and that I hoped to see him there. Good thing I sent it – he was leaving work in Princeton and planned to sleep at his parents’ house in nearby Ewing because he had work early the next morning as well. Upon receiving my text, he turned the car around and came to New Brunswick to hang out, which we did for the very first time. And the rest is history. That was April 23, 2005 – exactly 6 years ago today.
April 23, 2011