- July 16, 2001 – Amy and Jereme say hello
- February 14, 2006 – Our first unexpected date
- July 16, 2007 – Engaged!
Her story: On his first day at work, Amy remembers Jereme only as the new, cute, and very young programmer at Powells.com. His desk was less than twenty feet from her’s. There was nary a real exchange for months before a missent joke email about a wiener dog got them talking. A few years went by with an occasional chat, an occasional beer out with friends, a dinner or two. When the office moved to a new location, Amy designed the office space for what she thought was one of the best spots for Jereme with lots of room. It was unfortunately, one of the worst. With his desk in the direct path of the time clock. It meant a constant deluge of employees passing his desk, bumping into it and stopping to chat. It also meant Amy would walk by his desk four times a day. One day Amy noticed the plant on his desk was dying. She liked that he cared for plants so she bought him a new one that looked like a pot plant and she thought that was funny. Life went on.
In December of 2005, Amy hosted the company party at her house. While most had a great time, Jereme drunk a tad too much and ended up sleeping on the cold vinyl curved bench in her basement. Little did she know, he was going through a tragedy with the passing of his grandfather that very month. She got the pillow off her bed, a blanket from the closet, a glass of water and a trash can, covered him up and kissed him goodnight on the forehead, then went upstairs to bed. In the morning, she was hoping to invite him to breakfast. But before she could go down and ask him, she heard the side door shut and he was gone. Another month went by and then at the end of January, a tragedy befell Amy and her family. A phone call came in that her father was in the hospital. In Hawai`i, Amy wrote to her friends and coworkers to tell them she wouldn’t be back for a while, her father had passed away. Not long after one of the most heartfelt notes came in from Jereme. He told her she was greatly missed and valued when she got back, they would be there to help her through.
The next few months were terrible for Amy. While her friends were very caring and supportive, there was one very unexpected person who came through and shined – and that was Jereme. He let her cry, he set her up with funny shows to watch, fast forwarded through the sad scenes, he made sure she ate and together they worked through their grief. It was probably an odd way to get to know each other. But it was pure. Since his grandfather had passed away, he knew exactly what she was going through. What Amy did for him, she had no idea. But she was too appreciative to complain. “What can I do for you?” was a new phrase she had never heard before. His generosity shocked her. Almost as much as her allowance to let herself accept such generosity.
As time went on, the sad days became peppered with good moments. Summer came and they were together all of the time. Jereme became a regular attendee of Amy’s Survivor Potluck and close friends were cemented. One of the most amazing things for Amy, was that being with Jereme was all very natural and good. There was no weirdness, no arguments, no paranoia, no confusion. Instead, there was just happy times and laughter. There were many tears from grieving still, but also peace. Jereme met her halau and they loved him. Amy met Jereme’s family and she loved them. Jereme went to Hawai`i to celebrate Amy’s sister’s wedding and saw what Amy loved about Hawai`i. Jereme moved in a month later.
On a late Monday night in July of 2007, six years after Jereme and Amy saw each other for the first time, Amy sat in the living room working on her halau’s website. She had not showered that day and was wearing her one pair of “fat pants” as most women have when they want to feel comfy. They had just finished eating leftovers and settled into a nerd moment with their laptops. Jereme disappeared for a minute and when he returned, started to close the cover on her fingers while she was typing. For a second she was irritated – until she noticed his fidgety behavior and sweaty palms. He took both of her hands in his and then shoved into one, a very beautiful and shiny diamond ring. It had once been a present from Jereme’s grandfather to his grandmother and it was sparkly. When Amy realized what was happening, she instantly thought – oh no, no, no! I’m wearing my fat pants! But he explained how he’d carried the ring around with him for a few weeks. And while he’d thought about coordinating fireworks, mountain tops, sunsets and rainbows – when it came down to it, he realized that with her the right time would always be now. Fat pants and all – would Amy marry him? Without a doubt, her answer to this angel of a man was yes!
His story: The story between Jereme and Amy began in July of 2001. Jereme was hired on as a software developer for Powells.com and on his first day of work he met Amy. Her beautiful eyes and smile set her out from the rest of Jereme’s coworkers. Jereme was shy and not one to approach people, especially people he found attractive. So it remained for sometime that Amy was the cute girl who sat across the office from Jereme.
An errant email might have been the first time Jereme and Amy had an extended interaction. Jereme meant to send an image of a wiener dog in a hot dog bug to his project manager who was also named Amy. Though slightly embarrassed, he was thrilled to have an email from the cute girl across the room. From this point, Amy and Jereme traded the occasional humorous email.
In December of 2005, Jereme’s grandfather passed away at age 80. It wasn’t unexpected, but it also wasn’t easy. Jereme had a lot of respect for his grandfather, and had a fatherly kinship with him, having lived with his grandparents for nearly 10 years. He returned to Missouri at once to attend the services. Harboring regrets about his grandfathers passing, he returned to Portland to find everything a little tainted.
Not long after returning from Missouri, Jereme took note that Amy had not been at the office for a few days. After asking a coworker if she was on a vacation, he was informed that her father had passed away and she was in Hawaii with family to attend his services. Jereme returned to his computer and drafted an email to Amy and another to her sister. In each email he said he was sorry for the loss they had experienced. He talked about losing his grandfather and that, though it’s different to lose someone who’s 80, he could sympathize with how they were feeling. Since Amy lived in the same city as him, he offered further support in the form of hanging out, or talking about their losses. Given the circumstances, Jereme saw that it was in no way fit to use the situation as a platform for romance. Rather, he saw it as a chance for him to help someone he admired, and also a chance for him to heal as well.
Amy took up Jereme’s offer to hang out. Professing the need to “hit things”, she invited him to Batting A Thousand, an indoor batting cage in East Portland. Ball after ball, to them it felt good to hit each one. Jereme almost didn’t notice the blister that was forming on his hand right that moment. At the end of the night, Amy and Jereme agreed that they should hang out together on Valentines day, as both would be alone. This became the first date.
On Valentines Day, Jereme and Amy met and drove up to Cinetopia theater in Vancouver, Washington to see Pink Panther. Though they agreed it was a terrible movie, they also agreed that it was made funny by the loud yokel behind them who laughed hysterically throughout the entire movie.
After the film, Jereme invited Amy to watch The Office (BBC) at his place. Much to his delight, Amy really enjoyed the show. After they had watched half a season in one shot, Jereme was amazed at her interest in the show. When they had completed the first season in that same sitting, he was thrilled that she was every bit as big a fan of the show as he was. When they watched part of season two, Jereme began to understand that there was more than a funny DVD keeping her around. He suddenly realized she just wanted to be there. He put his hand on hers.
Jereme and Amy’s first date was the beginning of them hanging out every day. Very early on, it was clear to him that this relationship was different that any past relationships he had been in. Though Amy and Jereme both had a lot of healing to do after their recent losses, days turned from grief into bliss and a wonderful and honest relationship was formed. It was obviously love.
Time passed and they grew closer and closer until about nine months into the relationship, Jereme had spent a lot of time thinking about it and had decided for certain that Amy was the woman he’d searched so desperately for. Everything was so perfect. There were no questions. On a trip to attend Amy’s sisters wedding in her birth land of Hawaii, Jereme had his first good opportunity to ask for her families permission, and a perfect place to ask her… However, he did not have a ring, so the asking would have to wait (damn!). Her mother and sister were both quick to say they both gave him their full support.
Not long after they had returned from Hawaii, Jereme began working out how to get a ring to symbolize this engagement. After speaking to the family, he was told “Grandma sent you a package that you should look out for”. She had sent Jereme a ring. It was ring she got after her husband, Jereme’s grandfather, lost his mother. Jereme’s grandmother took care of her mother-in-law for several months until she passed away. His grandfather just wanted her to have something nice for everything she had been through. This ring had family meaning, and that is exactly what he was looking for.
For months Jereme held onto this ring. It went out with them on many occasions. Night after night the timing was never right, and the ring would go back home and deep into his desk drawer so it wouldn’t be found. Finally one night in July, he just couldn’t stand it any longer. On a normal calm evening at home he pulled the ring out, took a deep breath and then walked to the living room. Practically on auto-pilot he walked up and closed her laptop (on her hands) and in a not very well rehearsed manner, he opened his clammy hands and said something to the effect of “Amy, I have this ring… and I want you to take it… and I want you to marry me…” Though he was pretty certain she’d say yes, he was having reasonable doubt about the choice of timing, but the thing that had been beating to get out of his chest for the last 5 months was finally out. She wished he hadn’t done it while she was wearing what she called her “fat pants”, but she said yes none-the-less. Alas it was certain that the two agreed to spend forever together.
Wedding planning began soon after and the date would be August 16, 2008 that they would be wed…