Once upon a time, I was bouncing around the mushroom kingdom, punching bricks and throwing fireballs, trying to save the princess from imprisonment in some castle. The first seven castles I went to had NO princess, just some weird little guy wearing a mushroom hat, telling me the princess was in a different castle. Finally, the eighth time was the charm (but what a doozy of a castle!) and after knocking this big turtle freak into a pool of lava, I found Rochelle, saved her, and we decided to get married. The end.
Or maybe not. Maybe it happened more like this...
I had been an inactive supporter of The Garden Community for quite a while, but I had been attending a different church in the city. Back in February, the Garden put on an art show featuring pieces painted my kids to be auctioned off with the proceeds going to Haiti. This was on a Friday night, and I wasn't busy, so I decided to trek down the street and hang out. I ended up buying a couple of pieces of art, but I found something even more beautiful. I wandered around for a while in my socially awkward way, chatting with the few people I did know, but a girl back in the kitchen caught my eye... A little later, knowing I had nothing better to do, Joel (pastor of the Garden and an old friend of mine) told me to sit at watch the money box for a while so he could go talk to people. I gladly accepted. Lo and behold, minutes later, the cutie from the kitchen wanders over and sits down next to me. Rather than tensing up with anxiety, I felt completely comfortable talking to her, and she seemed like a very cool person. I found out she had good taste in television, with such favorites as The Big Bang Theory, House, and Lost, and that she enjoyed curling up in her pajamas to watch them. That's all well and good. I don't really watch that much tv, and it's not that important to me (particularly when choosing a mate). What really got me was at the end of the night, when she was back in the kitchen packing up leftover PB&Js, I boldly meandered over to continue chatting. I joked that it looked like she had lunch for the next week or so. She responded that she'd really like to give the remaining sandwiches to the homeless. I was floored. Not only is this girl attractive and fun, she has the same kind of ministry ideals as me. I called a couple of my good friends that night to talk to them. "I...think I'm interested in this girl..."
I'd already been wondering if I should change churches and throw my full support behind the Garden, but the presence of a girl I really wanted to get to know better sealed the deal. Sunday morning, I went to the Garden. No fireworks happened. I think sometime that week, Rochelle messaged me on facebook and invited me to become a part of their Thursday night house community. Um YES. Next Sunday, I went back. They'd been doing something called "Garden interviews", where a regular attender got up and talked about how they came to know Christ, how they came to Baltimore, and how they came to the Garden. That day was Rochelle's turn. (This was perfect for me - a way of getting information without having to ask for it!) I found out that she had originally come to Bible study with a college friend under the promise that there would be "cute guys there." Hehe. I'm sitting there in the audience thinking "I could be your cute church guy..."
Then I was invited to her birthday party...I went, I had fun, it was great. We thought we were going out dancing, but little did she (and I) know that her friends had planned a surprise party for her. So we ended up at that. My socially awkward self resolved to have as good a time as possible...but every few minutes Rochelle came up to me and said "Matt...are you having a good time? You don't have to stay, it's okay..." But I did stay, because I wanted to stay, because I wanted to be around her. (And besides, once they started playing Lady Gaga, I did have a good time!)
Then there was Easter Sunday. This was the day that really changed everything. We had grown attracted to each other a little, and perhaps both cautiously suspected that. That day, we went to church together, then went to an after-church dinner and hung out some more, then immediately after that dinner she texted me - even though we had just been together all morning/afternoon. She informed me she was taking a nap. Fine. Three hours later, I'm over at a friend's house, and she texts me that she has woken up from said nap. (Okay...why are you texting me all this...?) A few exchanges later, she asks what I'm up to tonight. I'm not doing anything, so I let her know that. (What the heck? Is she gonna ask me to hang out? Nah, there's no way. Don't get your hopes up, kid.) Then she replies... "I'm bored. Want to hang out?"
After picking my jaw up off the sidewalk, I asked what she wanted to do. She came over to my place, and we spent the next few hours playing Mario games, including the classic Super Mario Bros. 3 on the NES. Now, I've been playing that game for 20 years. I grew up with it. Yet in less than an hour of playing, she had shown me two 1-ups I never knew about and demonstrated that you can kill the jumping flame things with your raccoon tail. Wait...this girl, in addition to all the awesome qualities I'd noted thus far, is also awesome at video games?
That did it. The next weekend, we spent 33 hours together (we counted), and it wasn't enough. Every weekend thereafter, we spent as much time together as possible. By mid-April, it was clear we needed to be together, so I asked her out officially on the 14th.
Last piece of the story: five days after I asked her out, on a Sunday night, we were snuggling in my living room and I blurted out what I knew, but couldn't hold in any more..."I love you." Her eyes bugged out and she said, "Are you sure you want to say that?" I said, "I have to." She thought it was too soon. The next night, I went to her house, and suggested - nay, insisted - that we do Bible study together. This had a major impact on her. The next night, I was at a concert, about to head out of town the next day to a conference in Atlanta and then to visit my parents, so I would be gone for a week. I got a text from her asking if she could call me for a minute. I stepped outside so she could. She stated that she had to call because she couldn't wait a week till I got back to let me know... "I love you."
Then, we decided to get married. The end.
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