I am so grateful that I am living such an amazing love story. Jon and I just got back from a 10-day Vipassana Meditation Course and I have told my friends over and over that there was nothing else that could have bonded us in the way this did. So I thought before telling you how amazing that experience was I would start with how it all began. From our first date, through the pandemic, and to our Vipassana experience.
I think it is worth telling.
So here we go, I'll set the scene: It's September 2019, and I am a single girl, living in a big house in Wilhelmina Rise (a neighborhood in Honolulu that overlooks Lē'ahi). I am living with five other people. One of those is my ex-boyfriend, one is my best friend, and her daughter, and the other two are another young couple. We have one bathroom. We have a dishwasher that doesn't work. Just each other and a phenomenal view. We are living our late twenties bohemian dreams.
My day job is at Hanauma Bay. I have been working there for almost six months and I love how beautiful it is, I love the customer interactions. As you can see from the photo it is one of the most picturesque places in the world.
My nighttime gig is in the theatre. I was lucky to have been asked to help with a play called “Sylvia” at Manoa Valley Theatre.
I’m running the soundboard after being an assistant to the director during the rehearsal process. Somehow I thought this was a great time in my life to start dating again. I say again like I had been dating on and off. I had gotten out of a seven-year relationship and we were still living in the same house so obviously I was ready for what was next.
I had been out of the dating game long enough that I knew I didn't want to fall into the trap that many of my friends had lamented about online dating. They would talk for weeks to someone waiting for their schedules to mash up and would start falling for someone they hadn't even met in person -I did not want this. I love people. I love meeting new people. I was determined to make sure we didn’t spend an excessive amount of time getting to know someone and have no chemistry in person.
So Jon and I met online and planned a first date that I scheduled between my two gigs. This gave us one hour, just one hour, to meet and see if we wanted a second date. We texted a bit and he planned for us to meet at a place called "House Without a Key" a nice outdoor restaurant in one of the nicer hotels in Waikiki. I had never been there, so I didn't know how fancy it was. Luckily it was opening night at the theatre anyway so I was wearing a nice floral black dress and waited at the host stand for him. I am perpetually early and he was nervous so he was waiting for me in the bar. When I let him know I was there and waiting he came from around the corner with a beautiful lei for me.
One of my favorite things about this story is that when he walked up to me to give me the lei he was visibly shaking with nerves. I saw this and immediately went into disarm mode. I couldn't help it. I just started chatting away making sure he felt comfortable and never had a moment where he felt like I wasn't happy to meet him.
Then we talked. Oh, how we talked. I couldn't tell you about what exactly, I'm sure it started with wine since that's what we ordered, and it meandered around as first date talks do. A little about our past and a little about our present. Before we knew it that one hour flew by and to my surprise, I didn't want to leave. I wanted to talk to this man, whom I found so brilliantly attractive, all night. But the greats would say to leave them wanting more, and I had scheduled that in, so he paid the tab and we walked back to the valet to retrieve our cars and be on our way
So there we stood, both of us feeling a sense of longing for more time, but understanding we had plenty of time for that. They brought his car out first and he hugs me and I went for it. I kissed him on his perfect lips. I couldn't let him leave without him knowing I was going to be calling him again. He was a bit shocked, I don't think anyone has ever kissed him on a first date but there I was full of the budding stages of love. He then handed me a card and went on his way.
He must have had a premonition that it was going to go well because the card just said, "Thank you for a wonderful time". Maybe he was just hopeful, maybe it was his old school charm, maybe it was destined, all I know now is that it was special.
So I get in my car, and head to opening night with the biggest smile on my face, and a great story to tell.
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