About Us

Kevin: Really really tall, dark haired and handsome. Incredibly intelligent. Endearingly charming, and quite funny. Actuary at Nationwide Insurance. Aspires to be a professional disc golfer. Proficient in sarcasm. Expert at quoting Top Gun, debating, and making entire jars of peanut butter disappear within a few days of purchasing them.

Maria: Also proficient in sarcasm. Unable to watch TV without jumping up from the couch approximately 382 times per show. Occupational therapist in acute care at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Continuing to recover from knee surgery. Has an obsession with books, bookshelves, the smell of books, bookstores, and libraries. The one mostly writing this blog.

Kevin & Maria: 

  

How We Met: Once upon a time in the year of 2011, Jim and Amanda Word lived in the lovely city of Columbus, OH (so much better than Boston). Jim was celebrating his birthday at the Japanese Steak House near downtown Columbus with a bunch of friends. Amanda called me, and asked me to join. I was having a particularly crappy week, and felt absolutely miserable from the cold I had, but decided I should get out of bed and quit moping around. I even put a cute sweater dress on in hopes that it would make me feel a little better (and because you just never know who you’ll meet). It was February 10th, and it was freeeeeezing out. I walked in, and Amanda introduced me to all of Jim’s work friends that I didn’t know. There was Kevin, and fireworks went off and sparks flew and we were just meant to be!! Kidding. I do remember immediately thinking “Holy cow, he’s tall,” “Wow, he has a deep voice” and “I wonder where his girlfriend is.”

The first picture we have together from the night we met. I was impressed with Kevin’s mad chopstick skills. Thanks for the picture, Amanda!

We all sat down for dinner when our table was ready, and Jim kind of pushed Kevin towards the seat next to me, being quite obvious about what he was up to. I was apparently supposed to meet Kevin when Jim, Kevin, and Amanda went to Cedar Point the previous October, but I had plans to go to a Halloween party instead that night and never ended up seeing him until February. We talked for a little bit, then he moved to the other side of the table and Jim took his seat next to Amanda and I back. He thought I wasn’t interested at all, but I just felt completely terrible from having a cold.

After, we drove down to Little Bar to continue the birthday celebrations. We stopped at CVS on the way to pick up some cold medicine for me. Kevin totally won me over with his impressive knowledge of all of the 7th Heaven characters at Little Bar, which is my favorite show of all time. Then I drove everyone back to their cars that were left downtown at the end of the evening.

Little Bar the night we met (picture stolen from Amanda Word’s blog at http://www.gooseandmoosegetmarried.blogspot.com)

The next week, a big group of us went to Dave and Busters. I found out Kevin was colorblind and anosmic within the first 5 minutes of the evening, and he found out how awesome I was at the cyclone game. We continued to get to know each other while playing Ski-ball and Jurassic Park, then all headed back to Jim and Amanda’s to hang out. Things were going really well all evening, and I gave Kevin a ride home after Jim and Amanda’s (he had walked to work and a co-worker gave him a ride to Dave and Busters, so he didn’t have his car). Just outside of his apartment, he asked if I wanted to get dinner sometime. Not too much pressure, totally casual, to which I responded “Uhhhhhhhhhh………..*awkward silence*……..ummmmmm…………….I don’t know…..” in typical Maria-fashion.

In those 30 seconds of uhh-ing and umm-ing and silence, I was thinking about how if we broke up, our friend group would fall apart and I really didn’t want things to be awkward with Jim and Amanda and how if we didn’t break up we’d get married and I wasn’t ready for marriage yet and even if I was his coat smelled a little funny and our babies wouldn’t have good immune systems because we weren’t genetically compatible and OH NO he’s STILL sitting in the car what on earth do I do now I have to say something, say anything…”I don’t know” sounds good to me! Kevin got out of the car and it was super awkward and he said “Well I guess I’ll see you around.”

I immediately called Amanda freaking out, and she convinced me that one date did not mean we were getting married (ha!), so I decided I actually did want to go on a date with him. She gave me his number, I called him back, he probably thought I was insane, and we had our first date a couple weeks later. It went amazingly well, and the rest is history!

*Special shout-out to Jim and Amanda for setting us up/convincing me that a date with that “K-bone” guy didn’t mean marriage*

Fun Facts:

• We both work at “Nationwide,” although his happens to be followed with “Insurance” and mine is followed with “Children’s Hospital.”
• We both had Great Grandma’s who lived to be 100, and who passed away within a few months of each other.
• Both of our parents celebrated their 30th Wedding Anniversaries this year
• I have a journal with each time that we’ve hung out numbered and dated, followed by a description of what we did. Sometimes they’re more detailed, and sometimes it’s just what we did for dinner that night. I’m not sure why I even started this, but it contains literally every time we’ve ever hung out from the night we met through today
• We have pictures of each other from 5 years before we met. We were both jumping in Mirror Lake before the Michigan game, and randomly held up our cameras to take pictures of the crowd. We ended up in each other’s pictures.

Mirror Lake, five years before we met

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