Meeting the LOML
A little background before we jump in: For those of you that haven’t had the pleasure of meeting strangers online through dating apps, you talk to lots of people at the same time. From there you weed out the weirdos and boring people. I had a rule that if a guy didn’t make plans to meet in person within a week of our first message I would lose interest. I also want to make it clear, I wasn’t there for hooking up, I genuinely wanted to have bad dates with interesting people for funny stories. This made it easy to be myself because I didn’t care if it went well or not. So one of the guys I was talking to messaged me and said “Did you know you’re talking to me and my roomate? Don’t worry, we flipped a coin and I get to take you on a date.” First of all, WHAT...WHICH ONE IS YOUR ROOMMATE? Awkward!! What if I end up dating one of them and have to see the other one all the time, weird! I don’t remember HOW I found out which one was his roommate, but the roommate (Cam) was 6’8” and the guy that “flipped the coin” was 6’1”...myself being 6’...this wasn’t a tough choice. I told the guy that I was going to go on a date with the roommate first. Cam worked nights at the time and I worked roadshows for 11 days on and 3 days off. So we met for breakfast at La Mie on a Monday morning. I didn’t know if would ever go on another date with a guy that tall, so DUH I wore my tallest heels, and shorts so my legs would look 3 miles long. We waited in line together and ordered our breakfast, the girl at the register dropped his card and seemed nervous. Me, being not nervous, ask if she was intimidated by how tall we were. Cam was just as caught off guard as the register girl, she laughed though! Cam kind of laughed but it was more like a “what did she say?” kind of laugh. We sat down and got our breakfast, Cam had the saddest looking omelette ever, and I had some bombass french toast. We talked we laughed, we had a pretty good time. After we finished Cam asked if I lived nearby and asked if I wanted to go back to my place to “watch Netflix.” Okay, it’s like 10am? And we just met...no! Hahah So he tried really hard to think of something else we could do, which led to this convo… Cam- Do you want to go to Gary’s Lake? Me- *genuinely confused* What? Where? Cam- Gary’s Lake, it has a walking train and boats and stuff Me- *he means Gray’s Lake.* I’ve never heard of that, what is it? Cam- Gary’s Lake, in Des Moines Me- It’s Gray’s Lake, not Gary. Cam- You’re an asshole. Me- Aw Pet names! In my head I thought “Yessss hilarious date story number one, CHECK.” Then started realizing...shit….this guy is kinda cool. We went to Gary’s Lake (hehe) and sat and talked at a picnic table...I was wearing my bigass heels, remember? After an hour or so we both had to head out. So we walked back to the parking lot and for the first time in my 24 years of life, HE PUT HIS ARM OVER MY SHOULDER WHILE WE WERE WALKING. Every single guy up to this point has not mastered this because of their little baby legs. I lost my shit. I did not keep it cool even a little. After talking about this weeks or months later, he admitted it was weird, but since we kissed at the end that sealed the deal. We’ve been together for almost 4 years now and it is the healthiest relationship I’ve ever been in! We like brunching, travelling, trying each other’s hobbies, hanging out with the same people, and we almost always agree on what to watch on Hulu next. He truly is my best friend! Finding a good relationship really does come from loving yourself and not adding pressure to your dating life by setting unrealistic expectations. Dating should be fun and carefree, not every date is going to be perfect, not every relationship will be either. Know when you have something good, and if you find yourself questioning it, talk to someone or take a step back and figure it out.