One day, our daughters will ask how we met. Although we may omit certain details until they are a bit older, this is the story we will tell them. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Your mom and I met in college. We both went to Seton Hall University, in beautiful (and often misunderstood) New Jersey. It is the home of Taylor Ham, Bon effin’ Jovi, and the Jersey Shore (and I am not talking about the show!) It wasn’t love at first, second, or third sight. It took three years of talking, my temporary deportation from Canada (that’s another story altogether), and a little divine intervention for us to finally fall in love.

In college, I occasionally saw your mom around campus, and even though she’d flash a quick smile to me when I saw her, we didn’t really talk until we started working together during her senior year. We were also both dating people who consumed our energy and would have likely benefited from some type of therapy at the time. The timing never seemed quite right for us. Your mom was a class year ahead of me, so by my senior year, she found herself working at The State University of New York – Canton. Although the university has a US address, it is virtually in Canada. Hell, even the road signs in “North Country” (as it is commonly known) are in French!. Oui!

Your mom grew sick of the extended sub zero temps and decided to spend her President’s Day weekend with her mom in NJ. This was my chance! Valentine’s day was that Friday and we were both single. As ESPN broadcaster Stuart Scott would say, “This was cooler than the other side of the pillow!”  I called her up and mentioned that since we were both unattached at the time, it might be fun if we went out to dinner together to catch up.

Do I even need to tell you how packed restaurants are on Valentine’s Day?

After driving to at least 20 restaurants that gave us wait times from 3 hours to “don’t even bother”, I started to panic and decided that it might be best if we went to the decrepit diner next to the mall we saw earlier. It wasn’t ideal, but at least we could talk.  It was romantic in the “no one is even here” sense of the word. We were tired, hungry (it was close to 10pm by then), and ready to go home. We finally placed our orders and when the food finally came out, my food was a juxtaposition of look and texture. How the heck do you burn food that is also cold? When your mom bit into her sandwich, she found multiple strands of someone’s hair in her food!  At that point, there was nothing left to do but laugh and end our impromptu date. We agreed that if we were both single next year, we’d plan a little better in order to secure a better meal. Three years later, we were married.

Fun Fact about Us:

We were married in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Right on da beach, mon!