When Steve and I first stared dating, we wrote hundreds (maybe thousands) of e-mails to each other. We spent a lot of time apart, me still being in school, and him being a dad of four with a full-time job, so e-mails to one another flooded our inboxes by the minute. I am seriously grateful for the modern technology that allowed us to do that (even though sometimes I curse modern technology for its instant gratification) because we learned so much about each other through them and now we both have them safely tucked away into folders on our computers where they will last forever… or at least till our e-mail’s hard drive crashes… whichever comes first.
One of our favorite little e-mail “traditions,” if you will, was writing “random tid-bits” to one another. We would just list facts about ourself, past or present, wishes and hopes, thoughts, things that make us happy and things that make us sad. They weren’t well thought-out, just top of mind little morsels of information that you thought of and typed. Done and done.
Here’s one I wrote to him:
I have been listening to Faith Hill all morning. Namely, the song that I want to listen on your boat with you.
When Jordan has his glasses on, he reminds me just a little bit of Harry Potter. I told him that once, saying Harry Potter in an English accent (Like this: Erry Pottah, sort of) and he definitely did not like it.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a shooting star.
I really like you.
I feel sophisticated when I have a Starbucks cup in my hand and I’m walking through the city. It’s just a front though. I’m really not.
Last year a heel on my shoe got stuck in the grates in the sidewalk in Philly, I took a step, and the shoe came completely off still stuck in the grate. I think it was my first day of work, and I was with some co-workers. Embarassing.
This is short because I see another e-mail from you!
And just like that, came another e-mail from him (I told you, minute by minute).
Here was his reply:
And which song is that?
I love your ability to write in accent (to wit: erry pottah–by the way, that’s how you use “to wit”)
How about the northern lights? Satellites? I have seen them all and the Northern lights are the coolest thing ever. Northern MN is famous for them.
I feel sophisticated (even a bit more Christian) when I carry my Greek NT to church.
Sorry about the heel. Did you just keep walking and pretend it didn’t happen?
Note: I don’t remember the song. Maybe Sunshine and Summertime?
Additional note: We don’t normally don semi-matching cowboy hats. We were then, however, because we were at Flying W Wranglers in Colorado Springs where cowboy hats are most definitely appropriate.
One more note: He doesn’t use “to wit” in everyday language – only when he is trying to impress a girl and he was definitely trying to impress me then as now I get an e-mail from him maybe twice a week. Sure, we do live together now, but still, there are random tid-bits we’ve yet to discover, I’m sure! Let the random tid-bits round 2 commence!
First thing I fell in love with about this man? Oh, probably his humor. Just so you know, these are mostly tongue-in-cheek (as was my Sarah Palin joke a few days ago. Just wanted you to clear the air on that one. Phew, so glad I got that out.)
Cute picture! You look so happy and relaxed 🙂
How fun! Me and my husband exchanged emails before we were dating and they are so hilarious to go through. We totally liked each other but wouldn't admit it.
i heart you and steve.
steve and i heart you.
Mara, their love story is awesome! You have to read it. It is posted on the left side of the blog…click on the polaroid-esqu photo.
I just read your love story! Wow! What a beautiful story, and what a beautiful bride you were! 🙂
thanks for stopping by. i'm loving your blog. and jealous you live in/near? boston. my hubby and i went there for the first time this last autumn and completely fell in love with the place.
anyways, back to the comment that actually has to do with this post… hehehe i printed and saved all the emails my hubby wrote me when we first started dating. i have them in a file folder, but one day i need to put them into a little book or something.
You two are fascinating. When Josh was in Iraq, we did the same thing with e-mails. I have hundreds of them from a span of 8 months. Enough for an encyclopedia sized book.
I love this photo of you two and smile every time it pops up on the link within widget.
My husband and I were like this with FB messages. For Christmas a couple years ago, he printed out all the best ones, included some pictures, and made them into a book. 🙂 We still go through and read some of them from time to time. We say we'll show them to our kids, but there is some stuff in there that I would probably not want to show them! Plus they'll probably be like, "this is boring! Besides, who sends Facebook messages?? We all just read each other's minds with our mind reading iPads." Or something to that effect. Gah..the future!