L’vannah’s first memory of Matthew comes several years ago at Neil Young’s annual Bridge School benefit concert. A mutual friend, Adam, told L’vannah that they were meeting “Goose” at the concert. L’vannah didn’t really know Goose (except by reputation). Only Adam calls Matthew “Goose” so when they met at the show that was the first time that L’vannah realized that Goose and Matthew were the same person and she put the name to the face. Matthew knew of L’vannah from the Jewish Community and that she was religious and a crazy outdoors person. As their story developed he’d realize that he was right.

They occasionally bumped into each other in the following years, but nothing really developed until a friend’s birthday dinner in 2007 when they sat across from each other. They were having an enjoyable conversation with each other and those around them when L’vannah really impressed Matthew: We were at a very long table and L’vannah was trapped between the table and the wall. Proving she could think outside the box, she just crawled under the table, passed Matthew on the way up, and went to the bathroom. What a woman! She repeated the reverse to return to her seat.

Having an enjoyable dinner conversation, they made plans to go to a couple concerts in the upcoming weeks. Then L’vannah was off to hike the wilderness for a couple months during those summer breaks that only teachers and the unemployed get. At the same time, Matthew went overseas for a few weeks. In the Fall, they started seeing each other socially. After two months, Matthew realized what L’vannah already had- that they had seen each other every weekend for quite sometime. Maybe there was something there.

With L’vannah always having winter break and Matthew’s company in shutdown mode, they, along with that same friend who’s birthday dinner started it all, made plans to go to Belize. Spending all day with each other and keeping track of those days on the Mayan calendar can do funny things. The two of them really started dating and the year was off to an interesting start.

(Switching to first person now; writing in third person is just too weird)

Returning back home and returning to work, we made plans to see each other in a couple days and have continued to do so ever since. Since we both enjoy hiking (although L’vannah takes it to more of an extreme), we’ve made the Bay Area our playground hiking a different park and trail for months without repeating.

With Matthew’s parents out for an already scheduled visit L’vannah would get to “meet the parents”. Everyone had an enjoyable weekend. The adventure would be reversed when we flew to D.C. to spend some time with L’vannah’s parents. Another big test of the relationship came when we went Backpacking in the Sierra Nevada mountains. As L’vannah is fine sleeping in a tent and Matthew considers camping to be a Holiday Inn, this was going to be interesting. We both had a fun time and the ample photographs would prove it (for a full report see the trip report).

Late summer was turning to fall and engagement was in the air. L’vannah tells the story:

I picked him up at the train station. He seemed a bit out of it and a bit disappointed when I told him I had dinner in the oven, but he said OK. As I was finishing up in the kitchen, I noticed him sitting in the living room staring at the wall. This was unusual because he normally chats with me when I am cooking. At dinner, he wasn’t eating and I asked if he was OK. He replied, “The car isn’t my only big purchase this week. I made another big purchase. I’ve spent the last two days figuring out how I wanted to do this, but I give up. Will you marry me?” Of course, I said yes. The ring is beautiful.

We called our respective friends and families to tell them the great news.