We like to joke that we were each other’s Christmas miracle.
I (Madeline) was dog sitting this little monster during Christmas 2011 for my sister Joanna. Joanna lived in the same building that Patrick’s brother, Tommy, and Tommy’s wife, Susan, lived. A few nights before I met Patrick, two of my sisters, Julia and Becky, learned that Tommy had a younger (and more handsome) brother and wanted to know if he was single and ready to mingle. Susan reassured them that Patrick was single and that he was going to fall in love with me. I was unsure about this setup, but was willing to give it a shot. I finished Christmas dinner with my family, brought Chester back home to the apartment, and was invited to Tommy and Susan’s apartment to play Taboo.
I (Patrick) was told nothing about the dealings from the previous evening and walked into Christmas night oblivious to the plot that was hatched. A few minutes before Madeline showed up I was simply told “Oh, one of Jojo’s sisters is coming over to play Taboo.”
“Great, another person to crush in Taboo,” I thought to myself. In retrospect I should have realized that something was afoot. I quickly learned two things that night, the first being that Madeline is not easily crushed in word games. The second is that Susan and I are not great team members for word games. After a long night of Taboo that stretched into the early morning hours I found myself being drawn to Madeline, she was just such a fun and beautiful person, it was hard not to be.
I (Madeline) found myself smiling and giggling throughout the whole night due to Patrick’s hilarious/awful (dad) jokes. Patrick hung around San Francisco for a few days and we both unspokenly made it a point to see each other as much as we could. Right before Patrick left to go back to Los Angeles we said goodbye and Patrick asked for my email address. I rolled my eyes and said “No, but you can ask for my phone number.” He texted immediately.
We dated long distance for 14 months and eventually I convinced him to join me in Portland, Oregon. We’ve been keeping Portland weird since February 2013.