Norfolk Terrace, Norwich, Day 102. The Anniversary
I got up at 11:30. I cleaned my room of loose receipts and cardboard boxes. I complained internally for the busted radiator that leaked over the break and led to half my carpet being ripped out. I got more money out—in pounds. (I ran into a few American dollar bills as I was cleaning and realized how small they were in contrast.) I did laundry, I got groceries, I added credit to my phone (finally), I ran a slow-paced run to ease out of an unfortunate 25-day streak of not running. I showered, shaved, and cooked.
Recovering. It’s taking me longer than imagined to adjust back into normal life. My body is still weary, my mind still drained.
Luckily, there was something to distract me entirely from long-lingering exhaustion: Katya. Today was our anniversary. One year ago I asked her to be my girlfriend. At the time she had bangs and wore flowery skirts that she still wears every so often. Even without bangs, she’s just as cute now as ever.
I remember when we first met in January 2011, during a Welcome Back to A Cappella choir show. We were backstage, and by backstage I mean the hallway that juts to the left of the grand stage of Hertz Hall. We were in a circle, a small six-person one. The only other person I remember in this circle was Hayden, a freshman who loved to sing and meet people. He introduced this girl named Katya to me. I smiled and waved since we weren’t close enough to shake hands. She looked cute but I didn’t think about it too much. We found each other on facebook the next day and that seemed the end of it.
It wasn’t. I wrote a facebook status in late February that went something like this: ‘Off in 5 minutes to go to [something…running club?]‘. Five minutes surely went by easily and I was still online. I got a comment on my status from the girl named Katya. She was teasing me for not leaving like I had said I was. Odd. I barely know the girl, but I like her spunk. I replied, teasingly. She replied. She facebook-Instant Messaged me (in those days, messaging and IM did not contain the same thread) and the ball of friendship began to roll. The conversation was surprisingly fluid, for us being acquaintances at the time. There were no boring stops or pauses whatsoever. By the end of it, she asked me, ‘Didn’t you have to leave in five minutes?’ And I smiled as I looked at the computer screen and told her not anymore.
That started us off. A simple facebook comment. From there, it progressed to facebook messaging—she wanted to meet me. I offered up a time and place: 1pm on Sunday at Milano Café. Now remember that neither of us had the slightest inclination to consider each other as more than fast friends. And faster friends we became. I estimated that the lunch at 1pm would go for two hours at the most, if we turned out to like each other’s company.
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| March 2011. Cafe Milano. |
The lunch did not take two hours. It took six. At the time, she was joining a sorority (Gamma Phi Beta) and her Big (‘sister’, mentor figure) wanted to meet with her after our lunch. Katya kept postponing and postponing to no end. Finally, we realized that we had to go. I left for the library in the rain with my heavy bookbag and felt happy.
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| July 2011. Midnight Showing of the Final Chapter in the Harry Potter series. She's Lavender Brown. I'm a Hufflepuff. |
The undercurrent of text and facebook messages continued almost daily, especially during spring break when we were both back home, but the next event was a dinner. We discovered that we’d both be back on the Saturday before classes started back up. A dinner turned into a late night of endless conversation, 10pm became 1am.
I asked her to the movies. We saw the movie ‘Limitless’. She put her head on my shoulder. We went out often after that. I got back late to Berkeley from San Francisco one night and asked her if she wanted frozen yogurt before the shop closed. We made it just in time. We went for salad at Café Mezzo (which burned down this past year) and delayed going to class afterwards. Finally we did, and after the goodbye hug, she waited a moment and rushed up to my cheek and kissed it. I went late to my Rhetoric 20 lecture hall of 90 without a care in the world that day.
Finally, I asked her, in the Morrison Hall piano practice rooms. April 18. It was a Monday. Would you be my girlfriend? She said ‘of course’. We had our first real kiss as we parted for class.
Today marked a year since that day. I feel nostalgia thinking about us, about our younger selves. When you stay in a long-term relationship with someone, you essentially grow up with them. And it’s been a year since we started growing up together.
As for what we did today, we skyped. She ate lunch and I ate dinner. We both had pasta, as it turned out. Normally, I tend to cap skypes at two hours due to sleepiness or stress. Today I didn’t. We skyped for an hour and a half less than our first date at Milano: Four and a half hours.
I loved it. And I love her.
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| March 2012. In the City of Love. |
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