I could say it was because she put up with my witty--though she would say corny--sense of humor; I could say it was how I can't help but smile whenever I think about her or see her; or I could say it was how we easily turned our innate Wahoo-Hokie rivalry into a humorous and flirtatious interaction. All of these things and more than I have space to write would be reasons why I knew she was the woman I was going to marry. But, I also had a little help from everyone's favorite social networking site, Facebook. Of course I looked at her photos once or twice in that month we first met--okay, maybe at least once a day--and in addition to falling very swiftly in love with her, I quickly discovered something else. Katie is the most genuine person I have ever met: all the smiles I saw in her pictures were the same that gave me goosebumps in person. Good goosebumps. And a racing pulse. So after dating for less than two weeks, I was compelled to tell her "I love you," which is something I had never said to anyone except family members. I was dying to tell her that for days and I meant it. Thank goodness she returned the "I love you," because the road to win her heart started out a little complicated, as you'll read in the next question...
To fully appreciate the forces and circumstances that brought Katie and me together, I have to begin in my college days at UVA, The University of Virginia. I had a circle of friends in my graduating class that moved to the DC area, and these friends were VERY competitive with sports. So much so that they were VERY anti-VA Tech, in the friendliest of ways of course. Hence to my surprise finding them hanging out with a sizable group of VA Tech folks after a year in DC. However, the most important character in this story (after Katie, naturally) was one of my good friends and fellow band member (the band story is for another time). He invited me out one night to Whitlow's, a popular nightspot in Arlington, VA, to see The Reflex, a great 80's cover band. It also happened that my good friend planned to introduce me to a girl he'd been interested in who's name was...drumroll...KATIE!
Whitlow's was packed and it took us a while to get in, but as soon as we entered I looked over to the stage. My eyes locked with those of an incredibly beautiful girl. It was seriously like a Hollywood moment: for a few seconds we were the only people in the bar. I made up my mind that I was going to go talk to that girl as soon as my friend introduced me to his lady interest. After grabbing a drink at the bar and fighting our way through the throng of enthusiastic fans of synthesized music, we finally met our group of friends and my buddy's love interest. And you've probably already guessed it, it was the amazingly gorgeous girl I saw upon entering Whitlow's. And her name was Katie.
Conversation being lost between my buddy and Katie, I quite easily fell into a very pleasant talk with my future wife. The time flew, 80's tunes were sung, and soon the night was drawing to a close. Moment of truth: I was falling for this girl, but my friend was interested in her. Do I ask for her number or let her walk away? To this day, Katie insists that I made the wrong call, but I had to be fair to her and my friend. So I didn't get her number. Fortunately, we would meet again about one month later, thanks to a mixture of river tubing, fate and being my buddy's "plus-one" on an Evite for said river tubing trip.