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How it all started

Helen's perspective

So Alex and I will be celebrating our 22nd month together in October. Since we started this blog, I figured we'd best put up how we got together first. I actually like telling this story a lot, but it's not as complicated as it sounds, haha.

It all started thanks to our Japanese teacher, Shingo Satsutani from College of DuPage. I took Shingo's Japanese 101 class in the fall of 2008, and simply loved his class (ps highly recommend him as a teacher! ;)) Twice a week wasn't enough Shingo-ism for me though, so I decided to join the Japanese Culture Club that he hosts every 1st Friday of the month. I finally went to my first JCC I think in October 2008. We watched a Japanese film called The Secret Garden, about a girl who only cared about money. In the movie she was kidnapped at one point by two robbers. They had just robbed a bank and used her as a hostage (I think). They escaped with her and a yellow suit case of money, but unfortunately they fell off a cliff into a raging river below. The robbers died, but she and the money survived and drifted to the middle of no where. She couldn't find the money at the time, because the suitcase sank into the bottom of a lake they landed at, but she makes her way back to civilization, and began studying geology and scuba-diving, all for the suitcase of money. She learns some important lessons on the way, and eventually found that there are things more interesting than money.
As boring as this movie sounds, I had a lot of fun watching it. It made me laugh a lot. Some point during the movie, Alex walked in wearing a long trench coat, and I felt my breath caught in my throat. Maybe it was the dim lighting, but when he walked into the room, my heart literally skipped a beat and all of my thoughts stopped and I think I blushed. Thankfully it was dark at the time, and he proceeded to take a seat in the back (I sat in the front). I did my best to put him out of my thought and concentrate on the movie, but I was just really struck by his handsomeness at the time. I enjoyed the rest of the movie, even though I felt a longing in the back of my head.
After the movie we went to dinner at a Japanese restaurant near CoD called Kyoto Sushi. There I was finally introduced to Alex, and we talked a bit. I was so nervous at the time, I don't think I talked much. But he was so incredibly handsome, and I knew that it was something like love right there on the spot. Being so shy though, I didn't get the chance to get his contact info at all before I left. I figured I could see him again next month. The month of October was so incredibly long.
Finally JCC for the month of November rolled around. I went to the movie showing as usual, but Alex didn't go. I was almost sad, because I thought he wasn't coming. After the movie ended I went to dinner with the other JCC members as usual. Lo and behold, Alex showed up to the dinner! I was really happy, but I hid it very well, I think, because I didn't want to be so obvious. Alex and I and other JCC members had a lot of fun that night, just talking and chatting. I ended up getting a few member's Facebook, but I didn't ask for his because I didn't want to seem so straight forward. I ended up not getting his email or contact info again, because I was too nervous to ask him for it.
I wasn't going to wait another long month though! Right after that JCC, the next class session I had with Shingo, I asked him for Alex's email address. In addition to giving me Alex's school email address, he also gave me Alex's last name. E-stalking time! >:3
Anyway, I sent an email his way, but he, like many other CoD students such as myself, didn't check his email until almost a month later. I was rather sad for that month, but I told myself that it's his loss if he didn't want to contact me. In my email, I wrote that I was wondering if he has a Facebook so I can add him, and that if he wonders how I got his school email, if he replies to my email within 2 days, I'd tell him. Meanwhile, I did some e-stalking with his full name, and I managed to find his MySpace ;D For November, I just busied myself with school work, and occasionally Googled him in feeble attempts to satisfy my longing. (No I didn't fap to him. JFC I was still at the puppy love stage here, alright?!)
Finally he got back to me in December, letting me know that he has a Facebook now and that he was still wondering how I got his email. I told him that since it's been a month, I would only tell him if he paid for my next JCC dinner in a playful manner. He replied that a month would be too long to wait for an answer, and asked if we could work something else out. That's when we officially became friends on Facebook, and started taking all of our conversations there.
Sometimes I hate Facebook, because it doesn't allow me to save the chat logs as text files for my reading pleasure later, but I had so much fun talking to Alex. We decided that he would treat me to a movie in about 2 weeks. We wanted to see something in theater at the time, but we couldn't make it to any of the theater movies due to schedule conflicts, so we decided to watch The Dark Knight at his place instead. We chatted a ton before the actual "date", and that's when our "confession" came about.
Basically, we were chatting on Facebook, and I was telling him that my mom is really nosy. He replied that he "wouldn't mind playing 20 questions with her." At first I didn't get it, but then after thinking it through, I knew that he was saying he likes me. I didn't want to jump the gun though, so I just left it at that. Later when we were chatting about zombies, I playfully threatened to turn him into a zombie. His reply was something along the lines of "Nooo, you don't want your boyfriend to be a zombie, do you?" And yes, that was our "confession" point, brought out of the two of us by the topic of zombies. I knew it was true love then :] I also asked him when I can make it "Facebook Official", lol.
He wanted us to officially date once he asks me out in real life though, and he didn't do that till December 20th. So now our anniversary is on December 20th, and we celebrate monthly anniversaries on the 20th of every month :]
And that's how we came about!

Ps: at one point during the November JCC dinner, Alex and I "battled" with our pinkies over a pot of tea. Mainly, he was holding a pot of tea and I was trying to be playful and grab it from him, and he stopped me with just his pinky. It was my first time touching him, and his pinky felt so strong. I later told a girlfriend "If his pinky is that hard, just imagine the rest of his body!" (at the time I meant like his abs and other muscle parts, I swear!)