How We Met

April 2, 2011


It was fate :-) Stewart lives 3.5 hours from Kari and, yet, they still managed to meet and fall in love.  Stewart has a brother who lives in the same area as Kari and was headed into town to visit them.  Stewart was bringing his dog, Scout, along and decided to stop at The Dog Depot to let Scout run some energy off.  Kari had decided to get out of the house for a couple of hours and brought her dog, Bella, to the dog park.  Kari and Bella were there first, and Kari was contemplating leaving shortly because of the miserable Texas heat.  Bella was having a grand time running around and playing.  Kari took note of a tall, red headed man with a Virginia Tech shirt on who just arrived with his dog.  Normally, Kari avoids strangers at all costs but there was something about this one that drew her to him.  There were a handful of people at the park gathered around the benches talking to each other and playing on their cell phones.  Kari was standing a good bit away (avoiding strangers and all) and the red headed man began to make small talk.  They talked about their jobs, and Stewart explained that he would be moving to India by the end of the year.  Kari stated that as much as she wanted to travel, India was one of the places she had no desire to visit.  One thing led to another and pretty soon four hours had passed and Kari realized she was going to be late to meet some friends and Stewart's brother had called several times to make sure he was okay.  As they were leaving the dog park, Stewart told Kari that he wasn't in town very often and asked her to have lunch with him the next day.  Normally, Kari would have politely declined but she found that she was intrigued by this man and excited to see him again.  She said yes.


The next day, they ended up meeting at a park for a picnic lunch which lasted 5.5 hours!  Neither of them can remember what all they talked about, all they know is that time flew by.  Before they knew it, the sun had set and Stewart needed to hit the road to get back home.  Before he left, Stewart asked Kari if he came back into town the following weekend, could he see her?  Kari paused for a moment before saying yes.


The next weekend included a date Friday night at an Indian Restaurant and sunset at Mt. Bonnell (even though they missed it!), attending a family gathering at the home of Stewart's relative on Saturday, and brunch on Sunday.  By the time Stewart needed to leave on Sunday, Kari and Stewart knew that they wanted to continue to see each other as much as possible before he left for India.


- Kari