March 1 / 2, 2006: Our first real date

Our first official date was the evening of March 1, 2006, and it was to celebrate my new job at Saint Mary Cathedral!  Mark and I had spent time together before then, but this was our first official, "Let's go out on a formal date," date.

We first went to my favorite place to catch live music in Austin, the Elephant Room.  It's your perfect jazz club -- down in a basement, dark and great music.  I haven't been here in a while, actually.  I'm sensing a revisit sometime in the near future ...

Next, Mark suggested getting donuts at his favorite place near campus, Ken's Donuts.  Now, what's funny about this is that while he had suggested it, I actually didn't want any, but if he wanted one, sure, I'd go with him to get one.  I didn't think this would be a big deal until we showed up and he looked at me when it was time to order.  When I mentioned that I was just along for the ride and wasn't interested in eating any donuts, he couldn't believe it and didn't understand why we'd come in the first place.  I kept laughing and said that I didn't mind going and that I just wanted to be with him, so it didn't matter.  He still gives me a hard time about that to this day.

Lastly, we headed across the street to Spider House Cafe to drink some coffee and chat some in a quieter environment than the jazz club had provided.  This was the place where we also later took some of our engagement photos because of the sentimental value; if you received our wedding save the date cards, the picture on that (because I'm sure you all remember which photo it was, ha!), that was at Spider House.

 Engagement photo at Spider House Cafe, November 2008

We also call this our first official date because it's the night we had our first kiss ... awwww, I know.  It was actually Ash Wednesday that day, March 1, so unbeknownst to me, Mark wouldn't kiss me until after midnight because Ash Wednesday is supposed to be a somber day of self denial.  Ha, so after midnight, officially March 2 when it was no longer Ash Wednesday, he kissed me.

And we lived happily ever after. :)

On our first dating anniversary, we recreated this date, which was a lot of fun!  We visited each place and relived that first fateful evening.  I'm sure it won't be the last time we will have done that.

Yay for falling in love!

August 2009, Touring the Hill Country wineries