Dating: 2009-2011
Not quite the classic story of boy meets girl, but we got here in our own unique way. The romance began in the Fall of 2009, just as Kelly was starting her graduate program at the University of Pennsylvania and Matt was interning in downtown Philadelphia for CareerTV. We had known each other for almost four years and were good friends at this point, so we decided to get lunch together. Problem was we were both about 1 block from a Qdoba, but one of us had to travel to meet up. It turns out Matt took a $30 cab ride (from 16th to 40th street!) to have a 10 minute lunch with Kelly. This was a sign of things to come...
Our first date was to see Toy Story & Toy Story 2 in stunning 3D at the Rave Motion Pictures in University City. That fall Matt came to visit at Mayer Hall a lot. He participated in a lot of Stouffer College House events and got to know a lot of Kelly's residents (she was a GA for a underclassman floor). That October we went to Game 5 of the NLCS with Matt's brother, the game where Dave told Matt that he was proposing to his now-wife Kara.
That summer Kelly took an internship in Florida, and sneaky / stealthy Matt surprised her with a visit. He just show up on her doorstep thanks to the help of some co-conspirators. Right when Kelly's internship ended we went on a Caribbean Cruise that stopped in Grand Cayman (snorkeling), Cozumel (Swimming with the Dolphins), Roatan (Iguana Farm and Sea Turtles), and Belize (Cave Tubing and ATVing). What a blast.
Sometime that next fall we also had a fun day wandering around the city, and ended up walking across the Ben Franklin Bridge with beautiful views of the city. We also did some apple picking at Linvilla (spelling?) Orchards and randomly visited Harry Kalas' grave on a snowy day in Philly. In January, Matt's brother got married and of course Kelly was his date... Kelly helped him with his note cards as he gave his best man speech (joke's on Dave as we'll have 150+ people for him to talk in front of as opposed to the 40 he had at his wedding). Matt also got a permanent guest card to access the dorm Kelly was living in. Many thanks to House Dean Alison for hooking that up, she must of known we were headed down a certain path...
That spring we went to Phillies Spring Training and visited Disney World for the first of what is bound to be many many trips (we bought 10 day passes and saw all 4 parks in 2 very long, very packed days). We also met up with Jenna Hope at Harry Potter Land in Universal Studios. Its also the spring where Matt disappeared off the face of the earth because of Jerseylicious and Glam Fairy (TV shows he was working on in North Jersey). It made it easy to go into NYC a few times (once to see Wicked!) but it wasn't the easiest being away and busy 6 days a week. Needless to say there were a lot of late nights driving and a lot of miles put on both our cars.
In May Kelly graduated from UPENN and started a job search that brought her to Sacramento mid July. Shortly there after Matt took a road trip with his brother and Danny Michelson, a friend from the TV shows, to meet up and finally officially live with Kelly. Kelly found a great apartment and once Matt came out we made it our home.
We really have enjoyed living in California, and although its far from home, its been a lot of fun experiencing it together. See the Engagement part of the Wedding Story for the next chapter!