I'm Marie. I'm a teacher in the Bay Area. When I'm not in the classroom (and I'm in the classroom a lot), I enjoy running, wine tasting, yoga (especially the hot/Bikram kind), cooking, reading, watching home improvement shows and model house hunting.
this is his way of 'rebelling': standing on the closed side
My future husband (!!!) is Joel. He's a technical support rep for a cloud-based healthcare something something company. (Remember how no one on Friends knew exactly what Chandler did? Kind of the same thing over here...) Joel loves many things passionately: me, the Beach Boys, Giants baseball, comic books and super hero movies, and local history. He also likes to eat my cooking and look at model houses too.
after my first half marathon, 2010
We started dating in November of 2005. We lived in the same dorm: I was on the second floor, he was on the first. We actually saw each other for the first time at the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz: it was the first week of school in September and I saw him hanging out with a bunch of the girls from the dorm and thought I had no chance. It was a terrible night for me! Joel saw me all alone, and he thought I was beautiful. He made every effort to get to know and woo me when we got back to the dorm. Right before Thanksgiving break we were official!
our first Giants game together (and my first game ever), 2006
We've done a lot of growing up together in the 8.5 years we've known each other. He supported me through several difficult deaths, gave me wine, snacks, and encouragement as I earned two degrees, was by my side when I hunted for my dream job, and helped me carry my mattress through city streets as I relocated during my junior, senior, and grad school years (staying sane during a move is no easy feat, and we've had some stupidly difficult moves).
I've been there for Joel as he pursued his dreams, worked with him on his various projects both in and out of school, supported him through many tough job searches (graduating in 2007 right as the economy collapsed was not easy!), and celebrated his many successes.
We moved in together in August of 2010, when we both found jobs that would give us some stability. While marriage was definitely on our minds, we both wanted to wait until our careers were more stable: Joel was a contractor rather than a full employee and I was an assistant teacher rather than having my own classroom.
Three years later, in March of 2013, Joel was offered his current position. Ooh, I was getting so excited! We were very close to landing dream jobs which meant marriage was on the horizon. I toiled and fought for my dream position at the school I was currently working at. After a rigorous interview process and 3 month long wait, the position was mine! By October of 2013 we were seriously perusing rings. Then in November, 8 years after we became official, Joel quietly asked me to marry him in our bedroom, after I helped him change his windshield wipers (you can't let go of a girl this talented!)
We're currently procrastinating planning a fun, bright, romantic and casual wedding for 100 guests at the place we first laid eyes on each other: the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz. Planning has been a wee bit stressful as trying to stay within budget in this area in California seems to be near impossible, but I'm determined to keep things easy and breezy. Hopefully this post won't sit here alone for a couple of months and I'll be more regular with the updating!
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