How We Met

We met in Doolin, County Clare, on the west coast of Ireland in June 2003. In this beautiful village near the Cliffs of Moher, we were roommates at the Aille River Hostel:

After a night of pints, music and craic at O'Connors, we sat on a stone wall and talked for hours under the night sky (whilst Gina repeatedly rejected Jon's advances -- including an impromptu marriage proposal after he heard her speak so knowledgeably about both baseball and music!) and then walked back to the Aille River, where a peat fire was still burning in the wood stove. Gina went to bed; Jon wrote in his journal, "Met two nice girls from the hostel... Gina is the cute-cute-cute one, wee with freckles and a gentle smile. Swoon."

Upon returning to the states, Jon and his best friend Adam had a vacant room in their apartment on Commonwealth Ave. that summer, and Gina moved in. After a lengthy courting process involving Nick at Nite, rides to work, and The Ring, we finally kissed on New Year's Eve, after a Josh Ritter concert and a fun night at McGann's with our friends Kristen and Kerri (umm... and a bisexual marine, but that's neither here nor there).

After spending a brilliant summer together back in Ireland (Galway, more specifically- pictured at right was the beautiful view just one block from our flat on New Road), Jon knew there was no one else he wanted to spend his life with. The next spring, we spent 10 days in Tuscany with Gina's family and a rotating cast of friends, and while alone time was tough to come by, Jon finally managed to propose with just a few days left in the vacation (June 1st, to be exact).

It was almost three years to the day since it had all started in Doolin.