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According to Mark



A story that begins with the bits and
bytes over the internet. Both Marielle and I were using the website eHarmony in the summer of 2011.


I came across Marielle’s profile one day and was immediately taken aback. Marielle’s words spoke to me with such sincerity and cleverness that I knew I had to reach out to her. Little did I know I’d have to wait 3 months for a response! But when I saw that Marielle had responded my heart started to beat about 1000 miles an hour!


After those initial messages on eHarmony, we started conversing over video chat using Google Plus. These chats happened pretty much everyday and covered a wide array of topics. Sharing favorite video game soundtracks, what kind foods we liked, how our days were going. These talks would go late into the night usually ending with one of us falling asleep. It was another two weeks of these video calls before the subject we were all waiting for came up-- when were we going to have our first date?


We decided that New York City would be the perfect location for our first date as Marielle was living in New Jersey and Mark was living in Connecticut. In our long online discussions one of the set of common interests came up was art and history, so we were both onboard for meeting up at The Metropolitan Museum of Art at 12 o’clock.

 
I was very excited to meet Marielle in person. Talking online and on the phone with her had been so rewarding and intriguing that I couldn’t wait to meet her. So the Saturday finally arrived, I was certainly nervous on that Metro-North train ride to Grand Central Terminal, and again on taking the 6 train subway to the MET as I was not a frequent subway user. However I was the most nervous waiting near the MET. A light drizzle had broken out from the sky as the time ticked past 12 o’clock, Marielle had let me know she was on her way but I hadn’t heard from her recently. As 12:30 rolled around I was getting worried!  At 12:45 Marielle texted me saying how she had gotten lost and was almost there. I was so relieved!


Nothing would prepare me for when she called saying she was there and waiting near the Cake and Shake in front of the MET. As I moved through the crowd toward the stand, I experienced a moment of precise clarity when I saw Marielle standing there. I instantly recognized her. The crowd faded away in a blur and all I could see was this absolutely captivating angel in a white dress.


What unfolded next was what we like to call now “Mega-Date”. First by taking in the wonderful art and culture on display at the MET for the afternoon, we moved on to a quick bite to eat for lunch. We spent the time talking about life, our interests while wandering the city. Before we knew, it was rapidly approaching the evening and about time for dinner. Marielle suggested an interesting restaurant called Ninja. We had already made  our way downtown, as we really did cover a lot of the city that day. Dinner of sushi and ninjas unsuccessfully trying to scare Mark was an interesting end to the day. As we made our final trek to Penn Station to make sure Marielle made the train home we shared our first kiss of the 12 hour “Mega-Date”.


Click here for our Engagement Story!



Catching a Marielle.