Going to Italy

"So, when I go to Italy to renew my visa do you want to go with me?"

"Are you serious?" I asked a little astonished. After all, we had only been dating for less the two weeks.

"Yes," he told me.

Well, I thought, if a good looking Italian guy asks you to go to Italy with him you say yes. I have always wanted to go.

I guess you could say we were on the fast track in our relationship. Italy here I come!

Numbers

I'm not sure, but I don't think it is a good idea to give a guy you are interested the wrong number and then also drop and break your phone the same day. Yes, I did just that the day after I met Chris. However, I did think, "Ok, if he is really interested in me then he will find a way to get a hold of me." By that night he had. Being the (as he would say) computer geeky kind of a guy that he is, he didn't even know that I had problem with my phone because he found me on Facebook. He asked me to be his friend and sent me a message asking me out.

After I returned his message in the affirmative I looked at the little grey button at the bottom of the screen. I always kept my chat off. Should I turn it on and see if he was online? Hmm. I precariously clicked over to the available green button. Right away he started sending me messages. He was cute and a little flirtatious. By the end of our interchange we also had a date set for Monday. We would walk around downtown Palo Alto or Stanford campus. He told me that sometimes he just likes walking and talking. I told him that I liked walking and talking too. I thought this was very European to just stroll through the city and chat.

That night I was so keyed up I couldn't sleep. I had never been so nervous for a date before. This was not like me. I did not get nervous before dates. When I finally saw him Monday night, my fears melted away. We walked through the beautiful Stanford campus and he told me about his life. He was worried about talking too much. If you know me, I know you are laughing out loud at this point because I am quite a talker myself. He did indeed talk me under the table that night, but I found him fascinating and endearing. I felt his depth of feeling for the things he spoke of and I saw the charming, funny, energetic, spiritual man that he was. I no longer felt scared of who he might be but happy with who I was seeing that he was.

By the end of this date I think both of our heads were spinning. Something special was going on. Now, you will recall that we already had a date lined up for Friday with each other. When I said that Friday seemed far away now, he chuckled and told me he had some time available the next night. So the first week after we had met one another we went out three times. I will tell you that after this first date, however, something truly miraculous happened. As I drove home I felt, "I am going to marry him". It just seemed to echo with truth and I could see our future unfold before me. I laughed and I cried, but it just felt true. The next day the reverberations of this truth could still be felt. I just knew that I had found the man I was going to marry. Of course, I couldn't tell him this and scare him off so I wrote it all out in letters to him that he would read sometime later:-)

I don't think I slept very much that first week. Luckily, my sister lived in Ohio and I could call her very early in the morning California time. And I had friends in LA that stayed up late. It was a crazy time and it shocked me, but the rest is history!

Us at Stanford on our third date.

We went to an outdoor concert and had a great time.

Day Two: The Ferris Wheel

When I think of this day of our relationship I always think of the Ferris wheel, how beautiful my man is, and ice cream.
Let me explain.
Cristiano and I met at the first day of a church singles conference in Santa Cruz in September of 2009. As I said in an earlier post, the first meeting was interesting but we hadn't been struck by love yet. That was day two. Ha ha ha. Just kidding, but it is not far from the truth. The second day of the conference took place at the (in)famous Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. After much internal struggle on what would be the best strategic decision, I am all a about strategy and the numbers game of dating, I just couldn't figure out what the most advantageous activity would be! This really annoyed me but I finally relegated myself to just going on the rides with friends. Eventually everyone went on a ride I couldn't go on as I have vertigo.
Enter Fredric again.
He told me to come and join his group and after some hesitation I finally did. Low and behold, there was Chris. We talked and I got on a ride with many of the group. Chris wasn't going on the ride and as soon as we were away from him Fredric said, "Wow, you guys totally have this whole Italian vibe going on."
"I don't know," I replied very skeptically, "maybe it is just his Italian way of talking to women." You know the stereotype.
Frederic simply said, "Lora, there are other women here and he is not acting the same way with them. He got your information didn't he?"
"Well, we exchanged business cards"
Disclaimer: I live in Silicon Valley. Exchanging business cards is just how it is sometimes done here. If you don't end up on a date why not make it a business venture or vice versa:-P
"Right<" Fredric said, "he's interested." So, ok. Eventually we got off the ride and after a hilarious conversation with the two guys about the apparent phenomenon of chocolate dipped cones (Do they put the chocolate on and then squirt the ice cream in?) and Ferris wheels (When do you get on and how long do you ride? When is the ride over? How do they know whose turn it is to get off? How many times does it go around before they stop it? and the like) I discovered that Chris probably was really interested in me. "Pray tell, how" you ask? He offered me his ice cream and then touched it to my nose when I tried to get a lick. Those of you that know him will not be shocked by this behavior. I guess he didn't like that I was talking to my friend Alena and telling her where to find us on the boardwalk. He is a tease! This is actually the picture he took of me right before the ice cream on the nose incident.

I actually have quite a few memories about this day that I will not bore you with (yes, I did write about it in my journal). But I will say this: I did find Cristiano to be enchanting, passionate, expressive, beautiful, and...frightening. Yes, he scared me to death! Fredric and I ruminated on this after Chris had left and we were riding on the Ferris wheel. "Why are does he scare you? I think he is a good guy," he told me.
"I don't know," I said. I later decided it was because I was interested in Chris, heaven forbid. I know, shocking.
Then came the line Fredric and I still kid about when we think of this day, "What's the big deal? You make a little pasta, you add a little sauce." Alright. And so I took the plunge.



















Chris, Me, and Fredric (who, incidentally, I had met speed dating a year and a half before). I know. Even with, or maybe because of, the crazy hat I still fell for him.

How We Met

"That guy is Italian," Fredric proclaimed as a good looking guy with brown hair walked past us.
"How do you know?" I queried. Thinking Fredric could tell simply by seeing this stranger pass in front of us what his country of origin was.
"He's Italian," he said more emphatically.
"How do you know?"
"He's Italian. He's Tuscano. Ask him."
Those of you that know me, are aware that walking up to a stranger rarely gives me pause. So I did. I walked up to this handsome young man and asked, "Are you Italian?"
"Yes" came his reply.
This was not a boring, flat yes. This was a yes imbibed with an accent of the land of my ancestry. Whoa, he really is Italian I thought. We talked for a few minutes and then went our separate ways. Neither one of us thinking too much about the encounter. That was, until the next day.

Here we began

We love each other!