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How We Met: The True Story
A random day in mid-March, 1996 around 2:15 AM.
Marc is sitting at home alone after spending a few hours at a local bar. The dating scene hasn't been particularly kind to him recently, and he admits to feeling somewhat sorry for himself. He gets on-line and just surfs the web aimlessly. Eventually he lands at a website for on-line personal ads. He starts by clicking through some of the women in the Austin area that have posted ads and doesn't see much. So, he decides what the heck and posts his own personal ad on the web and goes to bed.
April 1996
Marc hasn't received any response to his on-line personal and has in fact forgotten about it.
(Hey, afterall he had just been at a bar and it was between 2:30 and 3 in the morning when
he posted it.)
June 28-29, 1996
Ruth has been out doing something and returns to her house and begins to play on the web.
She finds a site with personal ads and starts laughing at the freaks who post personal ads
on-line. Then she stumbles across this ad by some guy named Marc who has a website of his
own. She decides to go check out his site and laughs. "This guy is a total freak!"
she says to herself. "Of course, this is the sort of thing I would do if I had a
website. Put up information that no one really cares about, but I do like the pictures
of Ireland." And so, it being around 2 in the morning and feeling a bit silly,
Ruth decides to email this Marc character before she goes to bed.
June 29, 1996
Marc has returned home from visiting a local bar (he spent a lot of time at this bar) and
decides to check his email. He gets this strange message from some girl named Ruth that
says something about an on-line personal ad he put on the web. "What? Huh? Oh yeah..
" he thinks to himself. He then begins to wonder if this girl is for real and decides
to send off a reply before heading to bed himself.
Early July
After a rather healthy berage of emails back and forth, Marc stops getting any from Ruth.
He begins to feel that she has decided against meeting him and gone on with her life. But,
then he receives a letter in the mail with a PICTURE! And what can we say, he's in la-la
land. (Hey, this was one really good lookin' lady in this picture!) The letter explains
the computer problems she has been having and how dreadfully sorry she is about having
not been able to reply to his last email. She includes a phone number, and Marc decides
he better call this girl pretty damn pronto.
A few days later...
Marc is getting a little anxious now and wondering whether the picture was really accurate
or not. He really wants to meet this Ruth girl in person, but isn't exactly sure how to
go about it. So he comes up with a plan... He's offered to come meet her before, but she
objects on the grounds that he shouldn't drive to San Antonio just for her. But damnit,
that's what he wants to do. So he tells her that he has to go visit his Aunt and Uncle
in San Antonio anyway, so why not meet for coffee... strangely she agrees to do this.
July 17, 1996
Ruth goes out to a club with a couple of her friends. They do a bit of dancing and then a
bit more dancing. Let's just say Ruth had a good time dancing the night before she met
her future fiance.
July 18, 1996 around 4:30 PM
Marc drives to San Antonio and arrives at the little coffee shop where they have agreed
to meet. It's a place close to where she lives, so she can walk there since she doesn't
drive. Marc realizes he's the first one there and proceeds to sit and down and pretend
to read a book on Sternberg's Triarchic Theory of Intelligence... (Hey, he really was
reading parts of it for a project at school.) Meanwhile, in the bookstore next door...
Ruth has been given a ride to the coffee shop by a friend and they are watching this
Marc guy without his knowledge. They aren't sure what to think, and her friend is being
a bit protective. (Marc has his own theory on this, but that's for another time.) And
then it happens, Ruth has to go to the bathroom... and on her way there, Marc spots
her and the date begins. (Don't worry, she did eventually make it to the bathroom okay.)
July 19, 1996 around 1 AM (yes, over 8 hours later)
Marc and Ruth have had a rather lengthy first date that started with coffee, turned
into dinner, followed by a walk down the Riverwalk in San Antonio, followed by a movie,
followed by some time just sitting around and talking in the Trinity University parking
lot. (Marc and Ruth want to extend a quick hello to the wonderful security officers that
stopped by to check on Ruth's welfare that evening!)
And yes, believe it or not that is how they met and the rest is history. Some names and events
have been changed to protect the innocent.
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