April 20th - 10th anniversary For My Girlfriend and Me

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the first date that my girlfriend and I had. Yes, we met on this day exactly one decade ago, agreeing to meet for dinner at The Tiger's Tail in Montgomery, just outside of Princeton. The name of the restaurant is a reference to the official mascot for Princeton University, the tiger.      

She was standing just outside of the restaurant, but I could not be sure that it was her. I called her name in a questioning, and she said, simply, "No." Surprised and a little embarrassed, I began to back away, only to see her break out in a cute smile and then say that, yes, she was indeed my date. I've been working on trying to improve her sense of humor ever since.      

On my end, I had believed that I looked as sharp as possible, wearing my favorite shirt, which was a kind of champagne color. As it turns out, she was thinking that this guy needs help in terms of fashion and dressing up. She has been working on trying to improve my sense of style in clothes ever since.      

While she speaks English beautifully, some of my humor passes her by. That is what happened not just on that first date, but on our second date, as well. In fact, I had not believed that the date had gone particularly well as a result, because she smiled politely instead of laughing loudly and outrageously. Given how fricking hilarious I tend to be, nothing short of obnoxious, out of control humor can slake my thirst for attention when I am trying to be funny. So I shrugged and tried to forget about the first date. Then, she reached out to me via text a few days later, so we went out on a second date. It was much the same then, too, so I again shrugged and tried to put it behind me. Only, she reached out again after a few days.      

After that, our relationship really just took off.    

This was my personal favorite picture of us. She just looks really beautiful here, and this was a beautiful day at Branch Brook Park in Newark, back in April of 2013.

This is, I believe, our most recent picture together, taken around Christmastime of 2019. Neither of us are huge on selfies or anything. But yes, this is probably the most recent picture, from about 2 1/2  years ago now.

A picture from the earlier part in our relationship, back when Max (the dog just behind her) was still around.  Probably around 2013 or 2014 or so. 

This picture was taken on June of 2013, during our first visit to Poland. This was in the Botanical Gardens of Krakow, the actual name of which escapes me at the moment. It was hot and very sunny, although we both look as pale as ghosts here. Still like this picture, though. 

This, I believe, was taken from the same day as that first picture, which is my favorite. But this one is nice as well, with the pretty cherry blossoms right behind us. Another picture where we are showing off our tans, eh? Damn, we look ghostly pale!