#jonny!

[normalmammal]

re the tags of ur rb u are So right about the unraveling sucking ass lmaooo

I KNOWWW stefan i love u but u fucked up so bad on the unraveling

[fuckinrightchicago]

Dat booty

[fuckinrightchicago]

I follow every hockey fan back:)

[fuckinrightchicago]

[useraew]

i saw jonny buckland at my church today! JK lolz

[skins-for-minecraft]

Snowy jonny!

[inthesaddle]

It was seven years ago today...

Let's start at the very beginning.

August, 2004 My parents and Jonny's parents have a mutual friend. This friend thought Jonny and I would get along famously. Jonny and I thought this was stupid for several reasons, a couple being that we lived in two different states and our mothers' friend was trying to set us up. We wrote a couple of perfunctory emails back and forth. He told me to check out his band and that they'd be coming to New York to play in October. I was like, that's cool...see ya never.

September 2004 My friend and her now-husband were hanging out at my apartment, and the husband mentions that his friend's band, which he'd been telling me about for two years, was coming in from Chicago to play in a few weeks. I don't know what made me put two and two together (probably because how many bands of four Jews from Chicago are there really...), but I asked my friend if the drummer's name happened to be Jonny. This was confirmed, emails were exchanged, ha ha ha ha ha, isn't this so funny...yes it is funny...okay, I'll come to your show and say hi.

October 14, 2004 I met my friend at Arlene's Grocery to hear, for the first time, the band that would become such a huge part of my life for so long...even to this day. Truth be told, I wasn't that impressed (they know this...I've told them many times). It was an off show, the sound was awful (always is at Arlene's), but I did think that Jonny was an awfully talented drummer. I was sick, had almost no voice at all (I had actually had a show earlier that week that I had to cancel...one of the only cancellations in my whole singing career), so I met Jonny for about 20 minutes, didn't really talk that much to him, got into a mini-argument with his best friend about living in/being from New Jersey*, and dragged my tired, laryngitis ass home.

A couple days later, Jonny emailed me, thanking me for coming to his show and saying he hoped I was feeling better. And then he uttered the line that began it all for me..."if you're not...lots of vitamins and rest, okay?"

And gosh darn if I didn't think that was the cutest thing he could have said ever.

Seriously, though...it was such a tiny little comment, one he didn't even give much thought, but it sparked my interest. I wrote back and we began talking, the emails getting longer and longer. We started talking on the phone...those marathon four-hour-long conversations where you're both exhausted but neither wants to end the phone call. There was something really crazy going on here...

And then it hit me...

October 24, 2004 The band had a show that night. I left him a message that evening, wishing him a good show, and as I hung up the phone, I thought to myself "This is it. This is the man I'm going to marry." Realizing that this was only ten days after we'd met...and met for a miniscule moment of time at that...I quickly dismissed the thought as utterly crazy and stupid. But I went out to meet a friend that night, grinning from ear to ear.

After Jonny played what is documented among the band members as one of their best, most fun shows ever, he called me in complete excitement and said, "I know this is crazy...I barely remember what you look like in person...but I think....I think this is the beginning of something really special....like for real...for the future!" I sat there with my mouth hanging open, blown away by the fact that we had the same strong feeling on the same day and there he was...letting me know it. I of course told him what I'd been thinking and we basked in the glow of it for a little while...feeling like it was the most natural, right thing in the world. It wasn't too soon, it wasn't crazy...quite the opposite, actually. Everything made sense. It was as it was supposed to be. There was little to no question in either of our minds that this was it. For good. Forever.

We count this day as the official beginning of our relationship. From there there was near-constant communication, once-a-month-minimum planned visits and many discussions about the future and how the hell we would make it all work. And seven months later I packed up my shit and hauled my cookies to Chicago to live. I have never once looked back.

That is the story of us. The better part of the last decade. The preamble to the rest of this life together.

Happy anniversary, Jonny.

*Me and the friend are all good now...he lives in New Jersey with his wife, whom I adore, and we have competing versions about the argument and what was said. I know I was right.