Excuse me, but are you from England?

Okay, so someone recently asked me who Chris and I met and so I thought it might be interesting to share it with you.

I’m not sure if everyone is aware, but I’ve had a fascination with England since I was 12. When I was 12, I was off school for a month due to an illness. During this month I “found” The Beatles. It was around that time that The Beatles Anthology came out and their movies were on TV all the time. I was convinced that I was meant to live in England *cookoo*. Flash ahead 6 years. When I was 17/18, I was not getting along with my mom at all and decided the best thing to do was to leave right after high school graduation. I knew I was moving down to LA for school, but wanted to be gone for the summer as well. So, I got a job at aYMCA summer camp just outside San Francisco (where the english go to do Camp America). This is where I had my first encounter with the English.....which was not anything I had imagined. At the camp, I started a relationship with an English guy which lasted through the first year of uni. Needless to say, that relationship ended VERY badly. I decided I had enough of living on my own in LA and wanted to come back home...free from boys (especially English ones)! So, I transferred to San Francisco State University (SFSU) and vowed that I was going to be relationship free (and english free) for awhile.

– Enter Christopher Pike –

On Thursday September 26th 2002 (within the first month of school at SFSU) I met Chris. SFSU provides a free shuttle service from Daly City BART (underground) to the university. One morning, I got on the shuttle and there he was sitting in front of me. I didn’t actually see his face, just the back of his head. He was talking to his friend and it just hit me! The sexiest accent I’ve ever heard in my life! Once we got to uni, I followed him and his friend trying to get up the courage to say something. So, I just went for it. “Excuse me, but are you from England?” was all I could come up with. I went on to say something about how I wanted to study abroad in the UK and if they had any information about it. It wasn’t actually Chris, but his friend who asked for my email address – NOT PHONE NUMBER – what’s with these IT kids? When I got home from uni, I had an email from Chris’ friend asking if I wanted to go out on a date. Later that evening I was on MSN Messenger when Chris’ friend came online. We started to chat online for a bit. After a “polite” amount of time, I asked where Chris was. Chris’ story is that after his friend took my info, he wouldn’t share it with Chris. Chris had to force this guy to give him my email, even after I was asking after him. Anyways, a while later Chris came online and we started chatting for a bit. He asked for my number, I gave it to him, and we talked on the phone for a bit. He asked me if I wanted to go on a date with him that Saturday (his 20th birthday). How could I say no to a guy asking me out on his birthday?

Our first date was to the cinema in Daly City. We saw Sweet Home Alabama, but I can’t really say I saw the entire movie! We did the normal dating stuff and then in Dec 2002, Chris’ student visa was expired so he had to go back home. We had tons of conversations about what we were going to do. In the end, after only 3 month of dating, I decided to move to England (my dream come true!). I moved in Jan 2003, lived there for six months and came home in June to go back to uni. Again, we couldn’t live apart so I move back to the UK in Dec 2003 for another six month period (that’s how long student work visa are for). I moved back home in June 2004 to go back to uni again. We were only meant to be apart for another year – Chris was going to move to the US when he graduated in June 2005. When his graduation came around, he decided it was best for him to take a job with a consulting firm in London. I was devastated! I just felt so drained with flying back and forth and trying to keep our relationship together. After many arguments and lots of crying, we decided to get married. So, I made plans to move to the UK to get married and thought it would be best not to tell my family. I’m still a little sad that my mom wasn’t there to see me get married, but in hindsight, it was the best way to do it. And as you guys know...that leads us up to Chris and I moving back to the states in Aug 2008.

Chris and I have been together for 6 ½ years (will be married 3 years on Valentine’s Day). It definitely hasn’t been easy for us – long distance never is, but it all worked out in the end. So, I guess I can’t complain too much.

Thanks for letting me share that with you. If you would like to post your "how we got together stories" I would love to read them.